The Thinking Of The World Began Pounding In Our Ears The Moment We Hit Shore

The Thinking Of The World Began Pounding In Our Ears The Moment We Hit Shore
The Thinking Of The World Began Pounding In Our Ears The Moment We Hit Shore
Stroom
Belgium, 2026
LP

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Review by mb jones:

I Loved this LP: This is an album of beautiful ambient pop songs. The album is a relaxing and pretty innocuous blend of sounds. But after a while as the mellow starts to flatten out it becomes clear that something is very slightly off, not right. The sounds are, in a way, artificial. The gorgeous waves of voice and acoustics that settled into the background had never really settled. 

Each individual sound is dripping with effects from the auto-tune vocals, to the guitar that isn't guitar, to the acoustic instruments (drums, sax, strings) that are swimming in a lush expansive reverb algorithm. This is a new age of music, almost cyberpunk, and this album plays on the fusion/friction of the artificial reality we are living in everyday in 2026. At times I felt like the music was being played in a gorgeous terrarium and I was listening on the outside. The drum recording, which was incredible, was the only tell that that album might have been recorded in a studio. 

Lots of amazing things to comment on but I want to talk about the auto-tune vocals. Rubio is an amazing vocalist, musician, songwriter etc. who is known for experimentations with vocal technology. Listen to the 'more eaze' albums "Mari" or "The Joker" for singular expressions of this. There have been endless examples of incredible auto tune aesthetic wackiness going on in the last decades: from auteurs like Rubio, to the trap scene in ATL, to various scenes going on in Africa and so on. Please punish yourself if all you can think of is the Billboard Top 100 worst examples when you hear the word auto-tune (I know everyone does).

Yet on this album the vocals are different. In a way it is with the strange experimentations of past releases that the auto-tune revealed a new perspective on vocal music. But the sound on this album is completely different. The auto-tune is so clearly set at 'straight auto-tune' that it at times scrambled my brain to wonder if these were the words of a sentient being. Indeed, the vocals sitting in the mix had me tripping falling down into the Uncanny Valley. I loved the sensation. It is the backdrop of instrumentation that makes this effect believable and sends the listener into a proper technological enchantment.

I keep listening to the song "Haze" it is a gorgeous ballad that somehow made me feel like the Cocteau Twins meets Chopped and Screwed R&B slowjamz. It really pulls at my heart strings, but, in funny way my heart also realizes that it is only a mirage... then again... it is not exactly a mirage because my heart still aches. Everyone should immerse themselves in this one if they get a chance.