LP5 - Inferno

[superuser]

A decent chunk of SxT tracks were the same rips that were available on YT or other places around the internet (The Other Stranger is the best example that comes to mind). The internet may be evil, but it's also near unavoidable in the modern day.

That's what I mean. They are almost certainly discovering samples via YouTube, archive.org, etc.

I was just wondering if they would go to the effort of tracking down OG copies of the things they actually want to use or just ride with the lossy source.

[detit tani]

Respect to Warp for the bringing Inferno to life in the way they have. The masters would have been delivered to warp at least 12 months prior to release to put such a massive global campaign into motion. Selling 100,000 copies would have put a smile on their faces but all expectations would have been far exceeded

[2020k]

I had a conspiracy theory today that all of the vocal samples on the album were 72 seconds long, but then i remembered that Father & Son exists, so unless ya’ll wanna start counting up the other songs to see, it’s only Prophecy that mimics the WOW Signal.

[jcnporter]

A decent chunk of SxT tracks were the same rips that were available on YT or other places around the internet (The Other Stranger is the best example that comes to mind). The internet may be evil, but it's also near unavoidable in the modern day.

That's what I mean. They are almost certainly discovering samples via YouTube, archive.org, etc.

I was just wondering if they would go to the effort of tracking down OG copies of the things they actually want to use or just ride with the lossy source.

I'm hoping/guessing that they're using the internet in the way it should be - as a discovery tool that then leads to wider research and source material. Of course we're at the stage now where internet culture can become the source itself, although I think it's interesting that they haven't done that (as far as I know, yet).

[Negamuse]

I think I'm ready to put forward an interpretation for what the album means.

It starts with the Prophecy, as someone already pointed out this is tied to the Wow! signal, 70 seconds of activity on the hydrogen line, depicted here by the "voice of god" talking for 70 seconds.

Humans hear the "voice of god" and develop competing religions, leading to war, hypocrisy (Age of Capricorn), and fanaticism (Father and Son). Those who fall into these battles wipe themselves out and their souls go to a spiritual plane to absolves themselves of their sins (Naraka)

Meanwhile we develop technology (Acts of Magic, following on from the saying that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic). Through technology we find ourselves in a world where we're prepared to cut ourselves off from religion, symbolised by a turning off of the spiritual life support (Memory Death).

Through technology and science we are reborn (The Word Becomes Flesh) but pretty soon our natures lead us to a spiritually bereft world of violence. (Blood in the Labyrinth)

We look for something to fulfill the gaps in our souls where spirituality used to live, that connects us to our past (Deep time). But we don't find it and we end up in a dark place just as bad as the religious wars of the past (All Reason Departs).

We end up in a unipolar world dominated by scientific progress at the cost of our souls (Arena Americanada). From our reliance on technology we develop AI, in who's random noise we try in vain to find meaning (The Process). But somewhere in there we still have our spiritual selves if we are able to find human connection in a world that increasingly separates us (You retreat in time and space). The future is uneasy but also unwritten (I saw through platonia)

To me, personally, this holds up as a kind of a structure, that's got a bit more flesh on the bones than "it's a dark album about hell". There's a wry kind of a dark humour to it that fits with stuff they've done in the past

Here's the other half of the joke: the Wow! signal was later found to be experimental error, measurement noise we turned into the basis of proof of alien life that wasn't there. I think this album suggests that the same is true of the "voice of god" that kick-starts the album, and the "voice of AI" that brings it to a close. In whatever way it manifests, we're hearing our own nature reflected back at ourselves and trying to find messages in chaos that don't align to a spiritual cohesion that would actually let us survive peacefully.

I dunno. Maybe I'm doing the same thing here trying to tie it all up in a neat bow. But anyway that's my take on one interpretation of what the whole thing could mean.

[teknologika]

I think I'm ready to put forward an interpretation for what the album means.

It starts with the Prophecy, as someone already pointed out this is tied to the Wow! signal, 70 seconds of activity on the hydrogen line, depicted here by the "voice of god" talking for 70 seconds.

Humans hear the "voice of god" and develop competing religions, leading to war, hypocrisy (Age of Capricorn), and fanaticism (Father and Son). Those who fall into these battles wipe themselves out and their souls go to a spiritual plane to absolves themselves of their sins (Naraka)

Meanwhile we develop technology (Acts of Magic, following on from the saying that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic). Through technology we find ourselves in a world where we're prepared to cut ourselves off from religion, symbolised by a turning off of the spiritual life support (Memory Death).

Through technology and science we are reborn (The Word Becomes Flesh) but pretty soon our natures lead us to a spiritually bereft world of violence. (Blood in the Labyrinth)

We look for something to fulfill the gaps in our souls where spirituality used to live, that connects us to our past (Deep time). But we don't find it and we end up in a dark place just as bad as the religious wars of the past (All Reason Departs).

We end up in a unipolar world dominated by scientific progress at the cost of our souls (Arena Americanada). From our reliance on technology we develop AI, in who's random noise we try in vain to find meaning (The Process). But somewhere in there we still have our spiritual selves if we are able to find human connection in a world that increasingly separates us (You retreat in time and space). The future is uneasy but also unwritten (I saw through platonia)

To me, personally, this holds up as a kind of a structure, that's got a bit more flesh on the bones than "it's a dark album about hell". There's a wry kind of a dark humour to it that fits with stuff they've done in the past

Here's the other half of the joke: the Wow! signal was later found to be experimental error, measurement noise we turned into the basis of proof of alien life that wasn't there. I think this album suggests that the same is true of the "voice of god" that kick-starts the album, and the "voice of AI" that brings it to a close. In whatever way it manifests, we're hearing our own nature reflected back at ourselves and trying to find messages in chaos that don't align to a spiritual cohesion that would actually let us survive peacefully.

I dunno. Maybe I'm doing the same thing here trying to tie it all up in a neat bow. But anyway that's my take on one interpretation of what the whole thing could mean.

Wow. What an interesting take! Thanks for posting that. Very thought-provoking...

[Altruizine]

Feels good to be from a gigachad country. Did your home country make it? 10+ rankings excluded of course

[Redd Panderson]

We look for something to fulfill the gaps in our souls where spirituality used to live, that connects us to our past (Deep time). But we don't find it and we end up in a dark place just as bad as the religious wars of the past (All Reason Departs).

I have a somewhat different interpretation for All Reason Departs. In Dante's Divine Comedy, Dante is accompanied and guided by Virgil throughout his journey through Inferno and Purgatorio. Virgil represented human reason and its role in guiding us away from the hell we create for ourselves in our lives, and through Purgatorio where we reckon with the internal demons that drive our negative behaviors until we can overcome them.

But there's a limit to how far reason can take us in Dante's mythos. Virgil can no longer guide Dante through Paradiso, where he is passed over to Beatrice, who represents divine love. Basically, compassion, equanimity, and surrender to that which we can never control even if we exert all the reason we can to control outcomes.

I haven't finished reading the Comedy yet and I'm sure it'll yield some more relevant insights, but take it with a grain of salt as always. They're clearly working on multiple levels with this album!

[Electronaldmcdonald2]

One explanation for the change in writing credits is that either Marcus didn’t contribute any writing at all this time around, or another possibility could be that he passed during the creation of the album. Might explain the extraordinary gestation period, and the lack of an interview, other than they just didn’t want to do one…

[outhudd]

Respect to Warp for the bringing Inferno to life in the way they have. The masters would have been delivered to warp at least 12 months prior to release to put such a massive global campaign into motion. Selling 100,000 copies would have put a smile on their faces but all expectations would have been far exceeded

The embedded information in the wavs from bleep show that the final master was created around lunchtime on 2026-04-15 only 6 weeks or so before release.

The other mastering titles per track in the wavs are:

Code: Select all

01. V036 Track 01 FIXED PART 1 (MC MSTR2)
02. V036 Track 01 FIXED PART 2 (MC MSTR2)
03. V033B Track 02 (MC MSTR2B)   
04. V036 Track 03 FIXED (MC MSTR1)
05. V033B Track 04 (MC MSTR2B)   
06. V039 Track 05 (MC MSTR3)     
07. V033B Track 06 (MC MSTR2B)   
08. V039 Track 07B (MC MSTR3)     
09. V033B Track 08 (MC MSTR1C)   
10. V033B Track 09 (MC MSTR2)     
11. V033B Track 10 (MC MSTR2)     
12. V033B Track 11 (MC MSTR2)     
13. V033B Track 12 (MC MSTR1B)   
14. V033B Track 13 (MC MSTR2)     
15. V033B Track 14 (MC MSTR2)     
16. V036 Track 15 FIXED (MC MSTR2)
17. V033B Track 16 (MC MSTR2)     
18. V033B Track 17 (MC MSTR3) 

Interesting as it shows how many revisions each track had (at least from the mastering side, done by Matt Colton at Metropolis London, using Sequoia mastering DAW software)

[Redd Panderson]

I finally broke the seal and listened to the album almost twice yesterday. I was going to avoid listening to it more than a few times a month but I just couldn't help it!

I've got to say that I'm impressed with how intentionally sculpted the reverb is in this album. A lot of music that is still really good nonetheless uses reverb in a way that may sound good but doesn't reflect as much intentional sculpting as it does just running a sound through an effect.

Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan is one of the strongest examples of this. That swelling synth from the beginning of the track has these carefully unfolding stereo layers of reverb sound that really effectively evoke an enormous, serpentine form unfurling in space. That melodic development of that track all around gives me major goosebumps, so beautiful!

[Den]

I’m listening to Inferno in its entirety almost every day presently. I can rap along to Father And Son with precision now.

[Den]

I've got to say that I'm impressed with how intentionally sculpted the reverb is in this album. A lot of music that is still really good nonetheless uses reverb in a way that may sound good but doesn't reflect as much intentional sculpting as it does just running a sound through an effect.

Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan is one of the strongest examples of this. That swelling synth from the beginning of the track has these carefully unfolding stereo layers of reverb sound that really effectively evoke an enormous, serpentine form unfurling in space. That melodic development of that track all around gives me major goosebumps, so beautiful!

Yes, it’s always serving the music.

[magrathea_ultima]

I finally have the album AND can sit down with it.

I am taking in the artwork that comes with it and the rather graphical violence of it. Carnage, at a personal level it feels, the spattering of blood, crashed car, kids with empty gazes, I hope it is only metaphorical that they are killing their darlings, that clear scission with the past almost, to me it is unnerving and disturbing.

I need to ponder this while giving it all a good deep few sessions but anyone else feel that?

It feels more like Carnage than Inferno.

[mechanismj]

Fourth full playthrough today. Decided to listen with earbuds while I was sanding a table in the garage.

Fun to play the sandpaper like a percussion instrument on some of the more earthy beats throughout the album. Blood in the Labyrinth in particular. What is it about that song? I feel like I have known it all my life. A lot of the other tracks are soaking up that same vibe.

The album has only been out for barely two weeks?!

Basically transfixed from the jam at the end of All Reason Departs through to the end of The Process. Found myself staring into the void beyond the garage floor.

Made it through You Retreat. Only blubbed once near the end. I keep thinking about it after the listen and it makes me want to blub some more. Impeccable.

Platonia is a wild track. Corsair vibes. Menacing yet it pulls you in by force of some haunting mystical beauty.

Yup. Album still kicks ass!

[Waterbagel]

interesting to me that all of the vocal samples in the back half of the song are super impersonal (e.g. clinically discussing embryo development to an asynchronously watching audience, the voiceover in The Process) ... unless i'm forgetting something that i haven't gotten to yet in this playthrough

[rolypablo]

Feels good to be from a gigachad country. Did your home country make it? 10+ rankings excluded of course

Number 3 in the UK Official Albums Chart (Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson in 1 & 2) is very good for such (let's be honest) niche music. Really happy for the brothers.

[Mexicola]

'Dance'

[Negamuse]

Trying to beat the flames of hell off your clothing can be interpreted as dance, yes

[b0qurant]

Negamuse: I appreciated your interpretation quite a bit.