Album Review: Jeff Mills – Mind Power Mind Control

The Breakdown

...Beautifully orchestrated soundscapes with percussive elements that effortlessly flow and wind their way through delicate layers of evolving sounds...

– 9.5

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The modern age has brought with it unprecedented social dilemmas. The world has shrunk thanks to the internet. Having a wealth of information at our fingertips has also flooded our minds with gargantuan amounts of data that the brain sometimes finds difficult to process. We live within the constant media bombardment in a vicious cycle designed to present the average human with a daily influx of despair. Compounded by easy access to illicit drugs, alcohol, smoking, sex and a myriad of other temptations, the human condition is at a stage of constant stimulation. This turbulent zeitgeist has given way to anxiety, depression, and confusion. We have a mind that is perpetually whizzing without stopping, except in slumber, if you’re lucky enough to get any.

Jeff Mills’ latest project sees him delve into the mind with a series of tracks that will not only envelope the listener but alter their focus, feeling and perception. Mind Power Mind Control is a conceptual album that configures nine tracks into a journey for the listener to enter the labyrinth of their own mind and confront whatever lies before them.

‘Scarlet’ is the second track in the project and brings a level of aimless wander. The organ-like keys lay a sense of celestial longing, like mist settling on an unassuming lake before being called to the heavens by the morning sun. The rolling percussions add a sense of dilemma before the drama piques in crashing cymbals. The builds lead to momentary relief before being ramped up again by cascading tin hits that appear to guide the listener deeper into the unknown.

‘Hatsumi’ has a whirling sense of blissful confusion. It enters like a light jazzy number that is just frantic enough to add elements of fever and desire. It has a whirling synth and an infectious bassline. The light cymbal touches add a layer of complexity, while the undertone of sci-fi sounds makes the track have a merging primal and futuristic tone. It presents the listener with the constant inner juxtaposition of longing for years gone by yet always striving for innovative endeavours.

‘Vermillion’ appears halfway through the album yet leads the expedition into the mind. The mind often feels like a jungle, and this track is the guide that pulls you deeper into its infested wild. It has a constant rolling synth that is carried with shakers and tempered cymbal. The meander comes from the plethora of other elements which come and go. Blustering wind, rising synths, swirling bells and jaunting shakers all have a role in presenting the listener with different avenues; whichever one their mind wishes to pursue could be easily swayed by the next.

Mind Power Mind Control is a nine-track album from Jeff Mills that allows the listener to confront themselves within their own mind. The tracks act as a vehicle, but the destination is not predetermined.

“The focus of this project and presentation examines the art of mental persuasion and how the mind can control as well as fall vulnerable to subservient ways. It allows the means to look creatively and more in-depth to a subject that applies to every person and at every stage of life because how we perceive or sense something is part of our evolutionary survival pattern. Because there is no exact mental compatibility between any of us, speculation and misconceptions are not exemplary so, an emphasis on “the presentation of facts, ideas and methods and what we knew as true by example” are the major points that drives the overall purpose of this album project.

Mainly artistic but scientifically as well, the album will explore various techniques used to control minds, physicality of people and inanimate objects. The objective of this project is to examine, reveal and demonstrate how humans have created metaphysical and mind-bending techniques to control people, they’re minds, societies and our outlook on reality and life. ”
-Jeff Mills

Verdict: As the intro to this adventure of the mind begins, we make our descent onto a curios landscape. Machines hum and circuits buzz, emitting strange noises as our subconscious touches down, deep within the unknown, and so….it begins. Beautifully orchestrated soundscapes with percussive elements that effortlessly flow and wind their way through delicate layers of evolving sounds. The works have a deep seductive nature that draws you in, while simultaneously evoking a slightly unsettling feeling emanating from within its tones. Enchanted by the alluring path through this maze of the mind, one still senses something may be out there, hidden in the periphery, watching…..waiting. An album that demonstrates a musician that has the incredible talent of bringing not only a detailed concept to complete fruition, one which embodies all its integral subjects, but also a work that can captivate even without the understanding of its initial premise. Hauntingly wondrous.