I'll have what he's having.

Album art: the scientist drinks from a flask as armed men approach
Catalyst | by Imrryr | Released 17 June 2025 on Owlripper

Catalyst | artist: Imrryr — Sawing synths and skittering drum machine patterns with toms and complex and overaturistic melodies (yes, I think Imrryr just helped me coin a new word) carry themes that occasionally will remind you of John Harrison's score to Day of the Dead.

Going back to the tragic story of a doctor trying to cheat death and origins of the black sludge.

Many of you will know by now that I'm a huge fan of instrumental program music and other sorts of instrumental music that either have a narrative function or that ride alongside a great story. In Catalyst, we have a wonderfully evocative implied narrative suggested through a proggy, but always compellingly melodic and meandering maze of meaning. Favorite piece: the enigmatic and elegiac slow tumble of chords that makes up "The Memories of His Father's Death Stayed With Him".

It should be said that part of what makes this so compelling is that there is in the music a palpable sense of adventure and suspenseful action. The twists and turns of "He Hid in The Shadows and Watched on in Disgust and Disappointment" contain more cliffhangers than a Netflix series. And the ambiently aware "A Decision Had to be Made" makes it clear that this is no music for airports — unless you are being followed through the airport by armed men who aim to give no quarter to an errant (intentional word choice) scientist no matter that scientist's predicament. The closer, "They All Must Die", brings us full circle (maybe in more ways than one).

Throughout, and in a listen to the album's companion piece — Errant — as well, I found myself leaning closer to the speakers. Like you lean closer to the pages of a book. Like when you feel closer to the world in there than the world out here. | 4 out of 5 stars

© 2025 Srogi Mroczek | Mephistophilizer