Matthewdavid's Mindflight's New Album Is a Another New Age Daydream

As the proprietor of Leaving Records, the Los Angeles producer born Matthew David McQueen has been responsible for issuing some of the wooziest and wooliest releases from the psychedelic underbelly of the city's famed beats scene. But his recent solo work, as Matthewdavid and Matthewdavid's Mindflight, has shirked the terrestrial bounds of even his label's wispiest releases in favor of a drifting, aerated take on new age sonics. Today, he releases his most ambitious and expansive release in that vein to date, the double LP Trust the Guide and Glide. It earns its name.

He appears in press photos in flowing linen robes and favors languid pools of synthesizer the main structure of most of the compositions here, but its far more of a head trip than your average Wal-Mart endcap compilation of centering sounds. Matthewdavid has a particular understanding for the narrative possibilities of these forms, using dizzy filter sweeps or gentle pans in the midst of tracks like "Venusian Sunset" as a way of lending movement and depth to otherwise laid back pieces. These are compositions that sit and stew, but they're deceptively off-kilter, guided meditation through occasionally uncomfortable realms rather than the sheltered sensory deprivation soak that mark so many new age synthscapes.

So even if you're scared of hippies, you might want to check this one out, and if you're not, well, you've found your people. Trust the Guide and Glide is out today on Leaving Records, you can stream it below alongside a wonderfully aqueous video for "Unfolding Atlantis," premiered by our pals at The Creators Project.