53X - Zen ’23

After another acid-tinged EP from Akio Nagase, Especial travels back across the globe to present Jonne Lydén, aka 53X, with bass-heavy, widescreen trance steppers for the future.

Born and raised in southern Finland, Lydén began as a singer in a hardcore punk band before moving into independent production, hardware synths and drum machines. After an exploratory visit to Berlin, he immersed himself in techno and released as J. Lydén on Mind Records and black. Records, developing a sound shaped by Detroit, industrial techno and psychedelic trance.

Live jamming remains central here: throbbing 303s, heavy kicks, breakbeats, dubwise atmospheres and calmer psychedelic passages move across four hypnotic tracks, closing with the flute-led glide of Eagle Flight.