Impossible Light by Uboa

Industrial music was pioneered by artists who actually lived and worked in an industrial economy, surrounded by the omnipresent noise of heavy machinery. Today, most of us are far removed from the mechanical monoliths and their billowing pillars of toxic fumes associated with the “golden age” of manufacturing. Some musicians now pull inspiration from more current aspects of our post-industrialized society, removed from the means of production but still affected by the pollution and waste that our lifestyles demand. And on the new album Impossible Light by Uboa, the cacophony of the factory floor is replaced by more familiar, intimate sounds of industry–shattering glass, emergency sirens in the distance, the many layered voices of overpopulation. 

But the real story of Impossible Light is not about capitalist alienation. The sonic landscape is not solely dominated by abrasive electronic chaos, but the space is shared with dark ritual ambient atmospheres that by the end of the album triumph over the digital noise. Lush string instrumentation and reverent choirs create the scene for beautiful divine transition, Venus rising above the seafoam, goddess born of castration. Poetic lyrics lay bare the vulnerability and eroticism of self-actualization as temporary moments of suffering transcend to boundless euphoria. Following a journey from birth to death to re-birth, Impossible Light is blindingly optimistic, its celebratory sentiment more subversive than the defeatist narratives that only serve to maintain the status quo. 

• Kalen