If you’ve read anything about 10th Letter’s new LP, The Revenge, you’ll know it’s nearly impossible to approach it without forming some preconceptions. After all, how many records have been written, in this or any year, about an African samurai living in 16th century, post civil war Japan? I’m going to venture a guess and say not many. But a narrative this adventurous, at least on paper, comes with a heavy set of expectations. The music will almost certainly need to be sweeping in its scope; it must be mystical, boisterous, challenging, cinematic. And for the most part it is, although almost never in the way that you’d initially imagine.

For an album that’s been two years in the making, The Revenge is as dense and exploratory a work as you’d expect from one of Atlanta’s most inventive producers and beatsmiths. Most of these song’s lack significant structural clarity — at least in the Western sense of the term — choosing instead to move forward in cosmic waves of ambient noise, Eastern-tinged textures, and atmospheric jazz grooves that distend and dissolve like so much mist.

To call it merely psychedelic seems like a vast oversimplification, but there’s no doubt that this record invites you on a mediative journey, one which will encompass your mind, body, and soul if you’ll allow it. Listen deep beyond the deluge of deftly assembled rhythms and full-bodied beats, past Saira Raza’s glistening, hypnotic vibraphone, and you’ll start to hear the essential details and nuances burrowing in the background or skimming lightly across the surface — the sound of wind cutting through dawn, of fog rolling through the forest, of birds conversing in secret codes, of murderous blades being drawn in the darkness.

The Revenge is the most free-ranging 10th Letter record to date, which says a considerable lot coming from the artist that gave us both the nuclear fallout fantasies of Escape From ATL and the playful genre-jumping of Portals & Compasses. But there’s a stillness that happens when this record finally fades out; it’s the kind of profound silence that only happens when you arrive at the conclusion of something complex and extraordinary. There’s no doubt it will take many listens to unravel and unpack all of this LP’s many mysteries and hidden treasures, but there’s tremendous power in knowing every trip will be worth it.

Listen below.

The 10th Letter Ensemble will celebrate the release of The Revenge tomorrow night, September 23, at 529. Supporting them will be Cosmic Trigger, Allen Thomas, STLNDRMS, and Psych Army Deejays. Doors open at 9 p.m. 18+ Donations accepted.

More Info
Web: 10thlettermusic.com
Bandcamp: 10thletter.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @10thLetterMusic
SoundCloud: @10th-letter
Twitter: @10thxletter