Album Review/ Sci- Fi Ambience : Hipster Pug’s ‘signal from the universe’
Hipster Pug’s essence is not heard but felt. Drifting through the ambience that he creates, the listener is meant to explore it and expand into it. Flesh it out and become compelled by the nuanced beauty and detail of it. For his latest act, ‘Signal From The Universe’, the artist combines his usual lofi/ downtempo/ ambient act with moments of cryptic sentience, an exercise in suggestive brilliance that compels you to journey past imaginary boundaries, breaking past thresholds of thought. There are a lot of sci-fi contexts that make up the theme, and with an ambience that is both simple and complex, the artist makes up a grand tapestry.
‘Prologue’ gives us an introduction to the stylistic bandwidth employed across the album. It creates an expanse, a space within the mind, opening up the stage to populate it with extraordinary ideas. ‘Act 1 The Signal’ begins the journey. With fantastical ethereal moments blended with shimmering electronic noise, the artist creates that alienic energy. The title track then comes in, expanding that moment of spotting into a show, with intricate sonic detailing, awe-inspiring moments, luminous frames, and just energy. The composition carries so much texture, tone, depth, and light dimensions.
‘The Maze’ and ‘Yugen’ are more like Hans Zimmer type compositions. With classical facets stretched into meaningful moments of music. It forms as an ambience, an experience of it, and the expression of it. All combined together. ‘Follow Your Own Path’ comes in next with a contrastingly contrasting sound. With epiphanic tendrils, undulating members, and wonderful tonalities, it projects that feeling of something coming alive, gaining profoundness and meaning.
The whole album is best viewed and understood as a journey. Some type of abstract, fatalistic, mystical and magical experience that is not of this world. There is no feeling from day to day life that you can compare it to. It is so far out of that horizon, forming like something extraordinary in the greatest degree of the word. In ‘Act 2 Cave of Memories’ the artist drives us into the next level of the world he’s been creating. A new dimension that guides us into ourselves against the backdrop of Act 1. It has a way of magnifying contemplations and spheres of thought. ‘Des Vu’, ‘The Cave of Memories’, ‘No More Holding Back’ and ‘Lights Part II’ contain that identifiable depth that feels like an extension of ourselves. There’s no way to explain it other than, when you are cast in its spotlight, you’ll find that resonance, a deeper connection.
‘Act 3 New Beginnings’ combines the findings of Act 1 and Act 2 to create a new world altogether. That sense of zen, the actual feeling of depth, balance, and understanding flows through. The tracks under this umbrella are decorated with a lot of dynamism and detail, energy is an important facet that you can note here. There are a lot of celebratory elements that rise and wash over you, rise and wash over you. It is quite the joyful affair and a satisfying end to this sonic play. Listen Now!
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The album is available for streaming on popular sites like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music!
You can listen to ‘Signal From The Universe’ by Hipster Pug here -
