Inkeys

ANDY PICKFORD – Dagon Album
OK – hands up if you remember Pickford?
Thought so......where have you been all this time – he is still making music you know – and at his trademark alarming rate, too. The last time I encountered his music, I think I had the equivalent of a 12 album epic – or similar – and I will admit it, but I ran off screaming....
Now, comes 2026 and there's a new album – single album, too – and not only that, 5 long tracks spanning 13 to 16 minutes apiece. Sounded promising, so I dived in.......
The first track is the title track and set to a throbbing synth rhythm, this incredibly intense, seemingly unending, series of synth layers ebbs and flows, sometimes spacey, sometimes galaxian, but then, with a mighty drum roar, in comes the next surging crash of electronics, like an army in full flight, the intensity almost overwhelming, but utterly hypnotic as this huge tornado of sound rushes ever nearer – and still that throbbing monster of a rhythm, pulses away down below. As to piece moves on, so the musical landscape changes and nothing stands still in this interplanetary war of electronics, synths that sound like roaring guitars, vast choirs from parts unknown and electro percussive rhythms somewhere buried in the mix. All in all it's immense, eerie, verging on scary, completely spellbinding and, apart from the work of Alisa Coral's Mono Chrome, quite unlike anything I've heard in aeons.
Following this is “Space Jank” and, cleverly, it begins in cosmic mode with a beautifully full-sounding synth drifting through the cosmos, soon joined by a higher register layer and then more as the mood is firmly spacey and spacious, cosmic and “out there”. Around the three minute point, a gentle synth rhythm begins, which is then joined by a bouncing electro-percussive rhythm as the tracks takes on a whole new identity that mixes cosmic, rhythmic and melodic, all in gorgeously rolling splendour, with assorted electronic space music layers delicately added along the way, right through to the closing sounds of the cosmic universe that began the track. “Pixie” continues the feel of the previous track only this time with a greater emphasis on the slowly melodic, less weight on the rhythms and a mix of almost wordless choir, pulsing beats, light and airy melodies, all conveyed with great feeling, again, the album's pattern of slowly adding and taking away musical layers, in full swing as the track passes silently and eloquently by.
“Shadowalker” begins in cosmic mode once more, but this time in a much starker, more outer space environment, the sounds of the space synths, free of rhythm and melody, drifting like some lone starship on its way to the outer reaches, the effect being totally hypnotic and captivating. Around the 7 minute point, it all starts to build and become a whole lot louder as a shuddering percussive rhythm marches down below, and a vast fogbank of synths encroaches on your territory, slowly engulfing everything in its path, the track no0w a quite mighty example of slowy but inexorably travelling muscular cosmic music, if that's not a contradiction in terms. Around 11 minutes, it begins to subside, but instead of fading, allows other soundscapes to appear as the nature but not the mood of the track nears its destination.
Finally, there's “Badlands”. Here, we're back to the menacing intensity, density, loudness and all-synth-guns blazing mix of electronics, thundering soundscapes, rifle-fire electro-percussive rhythms, shuddering echoing synths, and a sea of musical layers, textures, throbs, pulses, middle eastern influenced melodic distances and a whole ton more, all adding up to make this one absolutely massive slice of electronic musical might – turned up loud, this will scare the crap out of you at the same time as being completely compulsive listening pleasure.
So, completely faultless, a totally immersive listening experience from start to finish, and easily the best Andy Pickford album I've heard in a long, long time.
Welcome back.......not that you ever left.......