Bleep

From sultry and sweaty bathhouses to “paranoid torch songs” in the sonic spa, Ruth Mascelli dips into pools of cosmic soup with their second solo album for Disciples. Non-Stop Healing Frequency leads where A Night At The Baths leaves, with hydrating air steam-cleaning the pores and walls dripping in condensation framing the turn from acid-soaked industrial house and techno to silky synth-funk and new age nocturnes.

Special Interest's Ruth Mascelli tracks the vulnerable moments of healing and spirituality that can lead to being deceived, switching between ambience and turbulence as moments of peace and joy shift into minor key. ‘History’ shows this contrast with Mascelli’s own delicate vocals bent by subtle processing while speaking of “divine punishment”, and ecstatic string synths juxtaposed by serrated distortion as the question “Do you wanna suffer like a saint?” hangs in the air. Sly undercurrents of unease slink throughout the album’s uplifting compositions, emerging in the dissonance of oscillating organ chords and the shimmers and glimmers of synth soundscapes.

‘The Gateway’ opens with wavering mellotron and rhodes glitters plucked from the bright new age canon, with mystical choir synths gliding through a sea of electrical bubbles. The album taps into the transcendental with a cautious pace, becoming fraught as Mascelli flips Judee Sill’s ‘Lopin’ Along Thru The Cosmos’ in a piano ballad strung bare with their low vocals soon met by searing synths. In a particularly dark trip through the psyche, the synaptic pulses and pops of ‘Mind War’ are engulfed by piano resonance and synth agitation.

Ruth Mascelli travels even further into imagined spaces and esoteric wormholes as Non-Stop Healing Frequency shakes up their sound once more.