As someone who already cannot disconnect spirituality from music, I find so much to meditate on when listening to Timeslave II, a new work by Only Now aka Kush Arora. After all, music is like life—it is only possible in time. And unlike a picture, you can’t pause music and still see the frame—it literally exists only moment to moment.
On this new album, Kush continues breathing energy into the themes he originally explored on the first volume of Timeslave (released by Mexico City label Infinite Machine in 2017), stretching across the canvas a wide array of twittering percussion, deep bass, whipping synths, and occasionally even gentle melodies. The highlight may be the least “musical” track here—“Shiv (Vengeance 2)”—which wraps vocal samples and synths in an all-encompassing wash of noise, disturbing yet awakening. Also worth checking out: Under his own name, Kush Arora recently released industrial dancehall double single “Spies on Me” b/w “Eyes on Me” in collaboration with Jamaican artist I Jahbar on the mic.
