I’m sitting across from my father, listening to the new Stygian Stride, when he asks me what I’m working on.  I tell him about this immanent posting, and describe the music to him – “dark, pulsing, droning synth.”  Clear as day, he responds, “Well, that sounds like the soundtrack to a mysterious crime film to me.”

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Jimy SeiTang, of Psychic Ills and Rhyton, recently released his debut solo LP on Thrill Jockey.  Self-styled Stygian Stride, the music evokes the name perfectly; a slow, purposeful stalk through the River Styx, guided only by SeiTang’s analog electronics and a perfectly organic sense of pace and texture.

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In the video below, for lead-off single “Drift,” my father’s word becomes film.  A shrouded group glides through the murk of a New York night.  A crate appears on the screen.  Action begins.  A crowbar, and a revelation: an enigmatic safe.  As the drilling begins, the film ends.  This denial allows SeiTang to leave viewers in the dark on Stygian Stride, and that’s exactly where we should be.