Bleep

Barry Lynn – best known for making gruff, mutant dubstep for Planet Mu as Boxcutter – returns to his ambient alias The Host for an album of abstract synthesizer compositions and new age soundscapes on Touch Sensitive. Esalen Lectures takes its title from The Esalen Institute, a Californian retreat for humanistic alternative education, and unsurprisingly it’s inspired by some psychedelic stuff: transhumanism, ‘60s experiments into psychoactive drugs, 2012 mythology, and other far-out topics you’re likely to encounter on the fringes of internet conspiracy sites. The tracks here – all given names like ‘Belief Formation’ and ‘World Citizen’ – are blissed-out and hypnotic, evoking a sort of spiritual trance.