It is the sound of the Other - the vast interconnectedness of things - that web between the pyramids of language and oceans of silence which hold the world together. Schizophrenically, a beat destroys expectation for the possibilities of rhythm. It's structure is beyond convention, a natural chaotic beauty, of imperfectness and individuality. You move forward and backwards at the same time, balancing in between the mythic and eternal, a perpetual hallucination of motoring sound. Thoughts move through your mind at the speed of light, showing you things you have never seen. So much happens, it's impossible to dig it all in a single session, so you come back again and again always discovering something you never heard before. This is Download.

Download is an undefinable electronic music project based out of Vancouver B.C and is currently composed of cEvin Key (formerly of Skinny Puppy), Philth, and Anthony Valcic. Each of their albums have differentiated both in terms of musical style and band members (past members included Dwayne Gottel also of Skinny Puppy, Mark Spyby of Dead Voices on Air, and Genesis P. Orridge of Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV fame). And although the music is completely unique, the diverse musical influences are obvious, and range from industrial to ambient dub to acid house. Their latest release, Download III, has shades of all of these musical styles fused into an aural collage. Beats pull each other apart as they reach for you, pushing into your flesh echoing and resonating through the infinite pathways of your subconscious. And just as you begin to recognize the bizarre sound that's playing with your mind, it's already turned into something else. You become lost again, hanging onto each fragment trying to make order out of the seeming confusion. Suddenly everything becomes liquid and the distinction between oscillating frequencies and frenetic rhythm bleeds into white noise. A pure light burns images upon your mental retina. It stings, yet it's positively addictive. You'd inject it if you could.

It is the end of this album, though, which truly inspires. Through amber hued darkness a primal electric current sings against a live cello, summoning an aching beauty. It is a haunted sound, the kind of music which touches the skin lightly, leaving behind goose bumps. In the end you feel like crying, but clueless as to whether it's because it sounds so beautiful or so sad. Tracks like this are testament to the ingenuity behind Download, equal parts poetic beauty and maddening infectious groove. Get into it major.