Jeff Mills’ black hole-themed vinyl album spins in reverse
The Detroit techno legend said concept is “uniquely reflected by the idea of traveling through a black hole to exit on the other side"
Jeff Mills has released a black hole-themed vinyl album that spins in reverse.
Featuring eight tracks across four sides, ‘The Trip: Enter The Black Hole’ is a two-record set mastered and cut in reverse to play from the inside out.
The album is part of Mills’ latest multidisciplinary project, described as a “cosmic opera,” which premiered in Tokyo last month in collaboration with Japanese production group, Cosmic Lab.
In an Instagram post, Mills explained that the beginning of the tracks "are to be played from the end (to spiral in reverse) to the outer edge where a lock groove suspends the needle."
The Detroit techno legend added that the concept is “uniquely reflected by the idea of traveling through a black hole to exit on the other side.” Check out the full post below.
While uncommon nowadays, reverse cut records have a history, with various Underground Resistance records from the 1990s being cut to be played from the inside out.
Released on 10th May, Mills’ new double album attempts to reflect the latest research on black holes, those enigmatic regions of space-time where not even light can escape. Recent discoveries reveal that black holes rotate on their own axes, adding another layer of complexity to their already paradoxical nature. On ‘The Trip,’ Mills explores these concepts, as well as the notion of singularity - the potential beginning or end of time and space.
On two of the album's tracks, ‘Contradiction’ and ‘Hole’, Mills teams up with Japanese New Wave vocalist Jun Togawa, an artist whose music has also explored sci-fi themes. Other contributors include Shinichi Yamaguchi on synth and Kazuhide Yamaji on guitar.
Stream the album and watch the video for ‘Contradiction’ below.
Jeff Mills has long been fascinated with space, debuting his 2017 EP ‘Lost In Space’ at a live performance in Toulouse, France, accompanied by the Orchestre du Capitole. Watch that performance here.
Last year, Mills also created a new electronic music-based score for Fritz Lang’s silent 1927 film ‘Metropolis’.
In 2022, NASA released an audio recording of a black hole, which is scaled up 57 or 58 octaves above its true pitch so it can be heard by humans. Check out the recording here.
The discovery came a month after NASA unveiled a recording that revealed that Mars has two speeds of sound. Back in January, New Scientist revealed that a "mysterious object" was blasting radio waves in space.
