Mario Diaz de Leon, based out of Brooklyn, makes some serious synth drone. Not the type of drone to put on in the background while you try to sleep, but the kind of drone that demands your attention. His new album Hypnos, released by NY/Oakland based label Shinkoyo, is a dark journey of ethereal soundscapes. The album is 7 tracks of synthesizer experimentation that brings the listener into a cocoon of other-wordliness, clocking in at over 48 minutes. The album culminates five tracks in, with the epic track Faithless, an 8 minute romp of arpeggiated synths that rise and fall, creating a complex web of terror and beauty. Hypnos is the type of music to watch slow motion videos of nuclear explosions to; a slow burn collection of songs that are ideal for the coming apocalypse.

-WMc