Now on vinyl! Since we first carried Shinra Knives' You Will Never See Heaven on cassette, the album has earned a noteworthy co-sign: several tracks from the record have become staples in Aphex Twin's live sets as of late. A perfect excuse to revisit on the less-portable format. Here's our original review for the cassette version:

Following last year’s laser-focused In Grief full-length, Shinra Knives aka producer Ian Jones’ You Will Never See Heaven is more exploratory in execution and considerably lighter in subject matter (if you can believe it). Here Jones’ signature post-IDM maximalism rubs elbows with lo-fi Memphis rap tape aesthetics, frenetic D&B, razorwire drill, syrupy R&B edits and even… (gulp) deep house! Glimpses of his shadowy origin as a scratch DJ and beat digger shine through the cracks in his sonic brick wall, in the form of anime yelps, battle rap bars scraped from the depths of YouTube and microsampled video game SFX; "Black Mouth" almost feels like some scarred descendant of a battle / break record. Other faves: "Waited So Long To Tell You," "Laced Blunt," "Golden Truffles."

• black vinyl pressing
• limited edition of 300
• original release year: 2022
• music label: Shinra Knives 2025

reviewed by miss abuse 11/2022