Altered States

When a computer goes wrong, we are told to turn it off and on again. In Am I Dreaming?, science journalist James Kingsland reveals how the human brain is remarkably similar. By rebooting our hard-wired patterns of thinking - through so-called 'altered states of consciousness' - we can gain new perspectives into ourselves and the world around us.

Mosaic is the 1995 album by Japanese sensations Altered States. God Mountain were the label that unleashed this.

An off-kilter, bone dry western twang informs the loose experimentalism of black (w)hole’s heady journey of “altered states”. Perfectly named, the songs pass by as if in a delirious haze. Keeping things relatively loose the entirety of the album works best when taken in as a singular unified whole. Buildup has a post-rock quality to it for their usage of distortion and feedback gives it a particular edge. The way the music waits for things to unfurl and gradually collapse adds to the unique sense of the dramatic that comes to frame the entirety of the album. Layer upon layer comes into the mix, with guitars getting gnarled into the wild, weird and wonderful riffs that serve as the anchor of everything.

John Corigliano did the soundtrack to the 1981 film Altered States. This was released on compact disc in 1990 by RCA Victor.