The Doubtful Guest resurfaces following a decade of silence since her tear-out jungle/gabba LP Acid Sauna was released on Planet Mu circa 2008, Voyage To Blacklantis finds the elusive producer crossing into new worlds that resembles a cross between the aquatic exploration of Drexciya and the mid 90's ghost in the machine ambience of the Coil vs ELpH project. The entire recording was written while channelling the underwater currents that surround London's New River Studios.
Last seen performing alongside many of the Rephlex, Planet Mu, Bangface and I Love Acid all-stars inc. Mu-ziq, Luke Vibert, Venetian Snares, Ceephax, Posthuman and co. The Doubtful Guest aka Libby Floyd was one of the most prominent and important artists operating on the fringes of the arguably golden age of breakcore, when the scene splintered into acid, electro and hardcore she cut a deep and deadly six-track LP that reflected each side of this sound. The intervening years since her last known commercially available recordings have seen her musical output limited to a wealth of friends and co-conspirators only, with no new music from The Doubtful Guest seeing the light of day in ten long years, until now...
'Outbound' starts off the mission with a view of her new terrain; a glacial landscape of ever-shifting textures and tones that slowly submerges you deeper as each note tries to rise above the surface. Before long we are set adrift even further into the abyss on 'Open Sea', the severe choppage of her long-ago amen break rollers replaced with a whirlpool of choking chords and pressurised sub-bass. On the second half of the voyage, the imagined soundtrack vibe reaches even further into the dark watery depths, when we reach the 'Underwater City', it's here that Libby commands levels of sub-bass so strong that even without the drums, it carries the same ed rush intensity as her junglist classics. Each note circles overhead like sharks silently stalking the crystal-like shards of sound on the ocean floor. 'Return' contracts the entire episode across eight and a half minutes of crushing drones and decompression sickness, leaving us stranded at a new arrival point, the location of which is starkly unclear.
Where her Acid Sauna album unlocked the most severe feelings of drug-dread and heat sick claustrophobia, vibes that were crucial to what made the edginess within breakcore such an exciting and vital factor of the entire musical experience. The Doubtful Guest's Voyage To Blacklantis occupies oceanic ambient modulations that switch between an intensive crush and the ever-searching mission of diving deep into the unknown.
| A1 | Outbound | 2:00 |
| A2 | Open Sea | 4:46 |
| B1 | Underwater City | 2:35 |
| B2 | Return | 8:38 |
