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Xeeland — Master Builder
(Bandcamp God Unknown Records no#, 2025, LP / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-10-18

Master Builder Cover art

Xeeland is the solo project of one Jason Stöll, multi-instrumentalist and member of a number of different bands (Bonnacons of Doom, Dømes, JAAW, KLÄMP, Mugstar, Playhouse, Sex Swing, Twin Sister, etc.), he is also the founder of God Unknown Records, the label of Master Builder, Xeeland’s third LP. The seven tracks represent an immersive journey into a pulsating, repetitive motorik world of hypnotic rhythms and meditative, primitive industrial electronic loops. The listener can easily fall into a multi-layered cauldron of mystery, though there are hints of the Krautrock of Neu, Harmonia, Can, and many others from an earlier time. While this initially fell short of my expectations, hoping for something along the lines of Gong’s psychedelic excursions (based on the title, Master Builder), this has far less of a psychedelic charm and more of an intense immersive quality that might well accompany dreams and even nightmares, deep multi-layered excursions into some cosmic netherworld, far afield of any typical music one might normally encounter. While Stöll is a true multi-instrumentalist who can play just about any instrument he might encounter, here — besides some occasional drum loops and deep bass grooves, mostly what we hear is raw, unpolished electronic sounds that are far more textural than melodic, more dreamy than structured, sounds that simply float along until the listener catches the wave and drifts with it. Like its two predecessors, the LPs are released in micro-quantities (I think Water was 30 copies, Low Drones and Master Builder were 100), which means physical copies are probably all gone a few weeks after release, but the Bandcamp download option always remains.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Xeeland

More info
http://xeeland.bandcamp.com/album/master-builder

 

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