Most electronic music asks you to move. Sycklecell‘s music asks you to sit with it, put your headphones on, and actually listen.
The American producer, who’s been quietly building a catalog of tracks that sit somewhere between IDM, glitch, trance, and whatever exists in the spaces between those labels, is gearing up to release Borrowed Time Through Borrowed Eyes on February 13th. It’s a six-track EP that leans hard into his more abstract instincts, and after getting an early listen, it’s easy to say this one deserves attention.
The EP is well thought out and cohesive in a way that rewards front-to-back listening. Tracks like “Recursive Collapse,” “Oneirophrenia,” and “Simulated Consciousness” keep things unpredictable, while “All Things End,” which shares a name with one of his previously released tracks but is an entirely different piece, fits naturally into the EP’s arc. The mixing is clean throughout, which matters more than people realize in abstract electronic music. When the compositions are this layered and unpredictable, sloppy production kills the illusion fast. That’s not an issue here.
The standout, at least on this end, is “Pale Horse.” It’s the track where everything clicks into place, the one you keep going back to after the EP finishes. “Broken Dream” closes things out and leaves you sitting with whatever the previous five tracks stirred up, which feels like the right move for a project built around this kind of storytelling.
It’s a strong addition to a catalog that already includes popular tracks like “Spirit Removal,” “Astral Traveler,” and “Psychic Driving,” the latter of which was played at Burning Man last year. Here’s the thing about music like this: you don’t go in with expectations. You press play and let the tracks do what they’re going to do. Every listen reveals something you missed the first time, some buried detail or rhythmic shift that changes how the whole thing feels. Borrowed Time Through Borrowed Eyes is built for that kind of repeated discovery.
Sycklecell’s path to this sound wasn’t a straight line. He started making music around 1997 with an 8-track recorder, a couple of keyboards, and a drum machine. He came up as a punk and industrial kid, and it wasn’t until a friend introduced him to Aphex Twin, Photek, and Squarepusher that he even got into electronic music. Skinny Puppy’s side project Download opened up the production side of things, the synthesis, the modulation, the entire process of building tracks from the ground up. Those artists didn’t shape his sound so much as they opened a door to styles and techniques he hadn’t explored before. What he built from there became entirely his own.
What’s interesting is how he talks about his own music. Ask him to describe it to a new listener and he’ll tell you it depends on the track. He’s made stuff that works at Burning Man alongside material that’s far more abstract and complex. He’s got a drum and bass EP called SKIN//FORM which we definitely recommend checking out, a three-track release that tells its own emotional story from front to back. He’s currently working on more experimental drum and bass too, just because he finds it fun. That kind of creative restlessness shows up in the work itself.
But no matter what style he’s working in, there’s a consistency to how his tracks sound and feel. He wants listeners to recognize his production fingerprint regardless of genre. And after spending time with his catalog, that identity is there. The attention to binaural rhythms, the way synths flutter and morph, the emotional weight packed into instrumental compositions, it all reads as distinctly his.
Sycklecell doesn’t overthink what he wants people to take away from his music. The experience should be cerebral. He wants listeners to put headphones on and actually sit with what they’re hearing, finding something new with each play. He’s not making this for background listening on your morning commute. He’s trying to paint something complex enough that it rewards your full attention, and open enough that whatever you’re feeling in the moment shapes what the track becomes for you.
That’s a tall order for any producer. But with Borrowed Time Through Borrowed Eyes, he’s making a convincing case that he can deliver on it.
You can follow Sycklecell on Instagram and stream his music on Spotify.
