Organic Machinations from the Otherworld: SIXIS ‘Refraction Point’ Review

I’m a sucker for psychedelic soundscapes. Give me something richly textured, organic and glitchy, cerebral and airy or unfathomably dark and stack it on top of a deep, oscillating bassline and I am grinning. I don’t have synesthesia (or maybe I do?) but when I listen to this kind of music through good headphones or big speakers, I see colorful worlds unfold as sound waves crash together and vibrate through the ether of my mind.

Enter Sixis’s new EP, Refraction Point. Playing on the senses and subconscious through an amalgam of intelligible and extraterrestrial sounds that will at one moment coddle the mind, and at the next, arouse dark visions of dreams you never remembered having, this four-song collection twists and bends the worlds of swampy dub, Tipper-esque glitch and progressive psychill into a creature begging to be set free on a midnight dance floor.


The title track invites the listener on a harmonic journey through the veil into the world of forms, where airy sensations and ethereal vocals coalesce with liquidy sci-fi textures and glitchy energy fragments bouncing in and out of the darkness. Thumping distortions and alien machinations give the body something to latch on to as awareness opens in preparation for the trials and metamorphoses that lie ahead. If this EP is a journey, “Refraction Point” is the call to adventure.


Like a beam of rippling energy penetrating the darkness, refracting around sonic artifacts and leaving gravity splashes in its wake, “Invert and Return” is the bringer of light, time and life to the void. Morphing into increasingly complex aberrations in its progression—only to double back and reform as it arrived—the maelstrom of reverberating textures and pulsating energy threading through this collaboration piece with Mumukshu begs to be heard through high-fidelity speakers that will not betray the bass tones lurking below.


Collecting itself from the silence, “Wandering Deeper” unites wistful glitch elements and energetic psy ripples to form its own version of the universal space from which all movement emanates. Cavernous echoes and airy swirls dot the thread of melded sound that weaves through this dualistic track, interrupted only by the brief reverie of a breezy summer afternoon that fades just as quickly as it arrives. While the sounds that define this track could easily be fighting for control, they instead dance as partners between the realms of fancy and reality, creating something delectably new and ripe for visual imaginations to take hold of.


The final track, “Conduit,” is a dreamy adventure into the realm of sonic mystery, where strange creatures dance ahead and gesture for one to follow toward alien environments populated by baffling hybrid intelligences. Words and imagery are not necessary here—sound manifests everything one needs to see on this faraway cruise. Taking everything that Refraction Point has worked to create, this track serves as a hallucinatory coagulation of sound that should be experienced when the mind is free to wander.

Serving as another brilliant entry to the blossoming world of cerebral psychedelic electronica, Sixis’ Refraction Point will transport listeners to distant worlds and alien dimensions without ever betraying its danceable ancestry. With each return to the sonic depths, new sounds will emerge to transform the landscape of one’s mind, revealing a multi-layered identity that will find a place on psychedelic dance floors for years to come.

Check out Sixis’ website to keep up on his upcoming performances. Next month’s Enchanted Forest Gathering in northern California is sure to be a special one! Our upcoming preview will have all the dirty details on that festival so keep an eye out.

You can get discounted tickets through lost in sound here!

And check out more of the music in our Soundcloud preview playlist:

print_version_4_-_enchanted_forest_2015

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

-->