Album Review
Neon Rayon – ‘Transmutation’ [EP] [Album Review]
Hypnagogic and edgy, ‘Transmutation’ (Mint 400 Records) offers electronic soundscapes designed to get under your skin, purge you, and make you ponder.
Following on the heels of last year’s EP, Arrival, electronic rock outfit Neon Rayon releases their second EP, Transmutation.
Originally from the home orb, called Rayon HQ, Neon Rayon landed in New Jersey. Their mission was to observe the earth and report back. Almost immediately, they comprehended that earth and its inhabitants were unstable. Since one of the prime directives is no coercion, Neon Rayon decided to influence earth’s people through music.
The three travelers assumed human semblance: J. Nixon (bass, vocals), Bob Paulos (electronics), and Sean Pryor (guitar, vocals). Their sound merges elements of electro-rock and synth-pop with extracts of new wave.
Transmutation opens with “MHD” — Magneto Hydro-Dynamics — featuring psychedelic-laced layers of synths topped by mannered, chanting vocals and spoken-word harmonies. Pulsating with trippy energy, the tune delivers a hypnotic flow that’s surprisingly absorbing.
Highlights include “Void Beat,” with its seductive, seesawing rhythm topped by swooshing accents. Mantra-like voices imbue the vocals with pre-programmed, mechanized tones that exude intensity.
Neon Rayon, photo by Bruce Richards
A personal favorite, “Same Old Madness” summons up suggestions of Ozzy Osbourne fronting Depeche Mode. There’s a frenzied feel to the melody, reflecting an ominous, incipient neurosis that refuses mitigation.
“Meat” closes the album, blending surfaces of new wave and industrial into a melody at once thrumming with dark, throbbing textures and immersive, almost eerie, shadowy radiance.
Hypnagogic and edgy, Transmutation offers electronic soundscapes designed to get under your skin, purge you, and make you ponder.
Transmutation Track Listing:
1. MHD
2. Statecraft
3. Mystic Music
4. Void Beat
5. Same Old Madness
6. Meat
Run Time: 19:25
Release Date: June 20, 2025
Record Label: Mint 400 Records
The Xcerts: “Throughout all of that darkness making this record, there was an overwhelming feeling of love…”
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