The Electric Nature
Alienation
Illuminated Paths

The Electric Nature is the vehicle of Atlanta (?) based musician Michael Potter, operating in the paths and field of 'experimental, psychedelic, illuminated avant-garde sound collages, Improve, free-jazz-noise, and drone rock'. Potter (credited on electric and acoustic guitars, bass, drums and electronic drum pad, keyboards, synthesizers, vocals, noises, field recordings, as well as arrangements, recording, editing, mixing and production) is a self-made player steering his compositions in various directions with the assistance of a number of friends/guests (Josh Lamar on drums, chimes, and production duties; Patrick Lowe on bass; Michael Pierce on MicroBrute; Thom Strickland, Nick Stinson, John Spiegel, Thomas Valadez and Zack Hann on electric guitars; John Fernandes on clarinet and violin; Sean Dunlap on Juno 60; Jake Merrick on saxophones; Paul Warren on drums). Welcome to the outer fields of sound.

Alienation was released a few months ago (September 1, 2015) and it's available through Bandcamp, as well as on a limited, handmade cassette edition (long since sold out; each cassette contained a handful of random ephemera selected by Illuminated Paths' label-head Joshua Rogers), with artwork by the talented Jeremy Kiran Fernandes. The album was recorded in/on various places/devices in Athens and Carrollton, GA between 2013-2015. Except (parts of) the track "The Death of July", which dates back to 2003. The short "Intro" is a calm-before-the-storm piece before diving into the dizzying, doomy-scary title track, "Alienation I", which is a noisy carousel ride into the light of darkness. "The Death of July" keeps on experimenting, before we're thrown into the lengthy "Alienation Jam", which moves in progressive, spacey areas with a cool and chilling vibe to it. The sound and noise of it is cascading through the room as you listen. The ghost hunt continues with "The Ghost of August", searching for the heart of darkness (?) of August.

Alienation ends with the massive "Alienation II/Outro", taking you further into the deep field of improv - and beyond. It starts almost doom-metal rocking, before escalating into grey-scaled noise territory, twisting and twirling its way back to 'safe ground' with crickets in the open field. Alienation is not for the faint-hearted, but it's an interesting tour while you're at/on it.

Copyright © 2016 H. Oppøyen