Caveman LSD – Total Annihilation Beach

Label: Isla – ISLA29
Format: Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM, EP
Country: Canada
Released: May 2023
Genre: Electronic
Style: Downtempo, Tribal, Ambient, Techno

'Total Annihilation Beach' is the brainchild fresh out of Caveman LSD, one of the many identities of American producer Shy aka Special Guest DJ aka DJ Paradise aka uon for the Montreal-based record label Isla. Five years after their debut, the Berlin-based artist beats out four inimitable mind-melters exuding a tinge of dirt and dystopia.

Over a run time of 17 oddball minutes, Caveman LSD spurts shape-shifting experiments that are brutally sincere and percussively rich. 'Lost Hours' is a tribal hit warm to the front with its rushing tabla and tambourine timbres. Distorted moans, amorphous pads and fluttering percussion slither slick like a rattlesnake on the desert floor ahead of an oasis.

A teasing, washed-out drip 'Bottle Service Angels' so perky to the core, rotating siren-like synths and dribbling beats, with a little percussive in the centre adding a tasteful touch.

Flip over the record to find 'The Sun Will Sink Into the Ocean' short yet eerily sweeping into remains of an imaginative ghost town by the shore, grim with dust scattering rays of the setting sun. Ambient textures of sound, sinister and heavy, rise and fall, perhaps animating the waves of the annihilated beach.

A sweet farewell promises a new world in sight is 'H6 Remix' sampling a hymn dated to 1400 BCE to the divine wife of a Mesopotamian moon deity - a rhythm pristine and lush echoing in empty chambers, spread across hand-played acoustic strokes drowning into soaring strings, marking the dramatics of the moment.

Review by Asmi Shetty

A1. Lost Hours
A2. Bottle Service Angels
B1. The Sun Will Sink Into The Ocean
B1. Hurrian Hymn (H6 Remix)