Following the delightfully profane LP Eat My Fuck under his I.B.M alias and the irreverent mixtape The Worst DJ Ever, both released earlier this year, Hieroglyphic Being’s latest full length finds him on predictably noisy and eccentric form.

Released via Planet Mu, The Seer of Cosmic Visions is a compilation of unreleased Hieroglyphic Being tracks rather then an album proper, presenting Jamal Moss’s work in a more edited and curated context than we’re used to seeing. Yet in the most part tracks feel cohesive, leaning towards the more ambient, or at least, less abrasive, side of Moss’s output. By now we all know what to expect from Hieroglyphic Being, and there is plenty on The Seer Of Cosmic Visions for fans of mutated jacking techno – but there is also something fresh to be found.

There is a feeling of stasis – tracks start, are held in place, and then are over. But once you submit to the rather skewed notion of structure at play, it’s possible to appreciate a tangible sense of a journey guided by the Being’s whims. The title track and Letters From The Edge are built on melodic foundations, Space Is The Place emerges as a take on new age, and Letters From The Edge is constructed around a heavy jacking beat and a slowly building piano figure. But even in these forays into genre, Hieroglyphic Being remains entirely unpredictable, would-be pounding kicks have no low end, distortion snaps from every corner and rhythmic elements fall completely out of sync. The music of Hieroglyphic Being is love-hate. Moss himself thrives on both the positive and negative reactions to his music with the borderline arrogance of what you might call a ‘true artist.’

Crack Staff