Jeff Mills - The Eyewitness (2x12") [Axis Records]

Tracklist:
A1. In A Traumatized World (6’37”)
A2. Menticide (5’50”)
B1. Those Who Worked Against Us (6’11”)
B2. Mass Hypnosis (4’25”)
C1. Hold And Command (6’04”)
C2. Wonderous Butterfly (5’31”)
D1. Sacred Iridescent Mirror (The Pledge) (5’05”)
D2. In A Traumatized World (Human Toll Mix) (1’38”)
D3. Indoctrination (5’31”)

"Trauma and the shock effect it carries: the remaining residue of a reality so harsh that it deeply impacts, shaping the way you imagine, visualize and calculate your position regarding everything and everyone around you. A new kind of psychological radius evolves. Boundaries are reinforced. Relationships retract. A damaged belief system floats aimlessly. Vulnerable to anything that resembles a worthy cause. The truth about facts becomes a satirical monologue, dead-end expressions that have no critical arrangement. We all know someone who has been or will be." - Jeff Mills

The Eyewitness reveals a habitual pattern in how it symbolizes a reflection of humanity in our most vulnerable moments. It is Jeff Mills’ album and is composed from the perspective of an unknowingly complicit bystander, and is, at the very least, psychologically pathological in nature. What this release essentially proposes is an admission to the diagnosis that no one is immune to shock and trauma. Neither the accuser nor the accused. And this abnormality is culturally and generally transmissible, passed on from one person to another disguised as fair theatre.

As an artist, Mills is known for the perspectives and paths he chooses to address heavy, complex, and sometimes uncomfortable subjects. The best way to recognize the narratives of his more recent works, such as The Clairvoyant, a haunting and transcendental album that unfolds like a spiritual session to create a bridge to another dimension, or Mind Power Mind Control, a warning about the consequences of supporting deception, mind control, and mass mental persuasion, is to start by taking a moment to look at yourself in a mirror. He is suggesting sound as a reflection and what we might be able to see in ourselves. Proposing that we might be the problem and the solution. In the same vein as his recent solo albums, the direction, scope, or objective of The Eyewitness is first us, then it is "that."

More than some of the albums he has released lately, this one has a unique relationship in terms of images and visual treatments that represent the concept. The cover shows Mills, elegantly dressed in a black suit, caught in the act of methodically doing something while collaborating with a kind of bright surgical light directed towards the viewer. Intense and in the act of... something offensive, it could be some kind of hypnotic machine at work. Other photos show him in dark spaces, aloof and deep in thought.

Other clues are the track titles, such as "Sacred Iridescent Mirror (The Pledge)": this refers to the act of giving value and credit to something ambiguous, and "Menticide," which means the systematic effort to undermine and destroy a person's values and beliefs. In the opening track, "In A Traumatized World," we hear narration spoken by Mills, in a language he specifically created for this album. It is a dialect designed to be indistinguishable, but spoken with such compassion that it could be understood. In the latter part of the track, it reaches a climatic point. That is to say, "it" has occurred. And the album is the evidence.

An additional note:

In these times, it is reassuring to see a musician like Jeff Mills administer music conceptually with no strings attached. The art and skill of using sound and rhythm to present a concern, a warning, or the result of a diagnosis to the listener.