"Accosting Form, Pure Intent" — Nathaniel Young’s debut album for Mysteries of the Deep — is a contradiction that makes sense. At once raw and elegant, it emerges from a place of constraint and desire. Its individual tracks reflect this paradox as the album unlocks itself like a koan: a riddle that, once solved, dawns on the listener like an epiphany.

Despite the assorted elements at work, a visceral quality binds everything together. Even the record's more subdued works are textured and tangible, at times balancing or playing against the serrated edges of its more structured pieces. Like all compelling works, the sounds here exist in a liminal space that is not entirely classifiable. Still, it is wholly cohesive in both its moodiness and its adeptness.

“The entirety of the LP was written using a Korg MS-20 Mini, Korg SQ-1 step sequencer, Korg Volca Beats, Korg Volca Kick, Behringer Model D, and a Zoom H4N. The core of each track was recorded live in one or two takes and subsequent synth parts were overdubbed after the fact. Since I was working solely with monophonic synths, I utilized a lot of panning in the overdubbing process to help create new harmonics, and even chords in some cases, which really helped flesh out the often extremely monolithic and singular sounding analog synths. Beyond that, as I mentioned, I really focused on creating sequences that I found I could listen to on repeat no matter their level of simplicity.”