Contributing Writer
Acclaimed Australian electronic producer Golden Features has released his anticipated sophomore album Sisyphus via Foreign Family Collective.
A reaction to the mental struggles and creative anguish he felt in the years following his 2018 debut SECT, Golden Features’ sophomore offering details the path to his musical renaissance. Drawing influence from his Greek heritage, Golden Features explores the philosophy behind the mythology of Sisyphus with his new album. Centering around this theory of the hedonic treadmill, Sisyphus is a sonic embodiment of the repetitive tendencies of the human condition.
Sisyphus opens with ‘Vigil’, a dark and meddlesome tale of sleep deprivation, moving into the syncopated synth melodies of ‘Touch’ and rhythmic arpeggiations of ‘Yield’. Through tantalizing tones and escapist atmospheres, Sisyphus serpentines through themes surrounding loneliness and anxiety with tracks like ‘Ether’ and ‘Butch’. Across the record, Golden Features enlists Australian electro-pop songstress Rromarin to provide her wispy vocals on ‘Touch’, ‘Endit’, and ‘Yield’, along with iconic female techno artist Louisahhh for ‘Vapid’, and even lending his own vocals on ‘Vigil’ and ‘Butch’.
Sisyphus was inspired by the pre-pandemic nights Golden Features spent in sweaty, intimate Berlin clubs. Four nights a week until COVID-19 shuttered the doors of clubs around the globe, Golden Features unearthed his adoration for the underground. It was on the dancefloors of renowned techno nightclubs like Tresor and Renate that Golden Features was reborn; where his sonic inspiration was revitalized by the energetic crowds and his passion rekindled by the radiant atmospheres. On Sisyphus, it’s tracks like ‘Vapid’ and ‘Flesh’ that harness the industrial, off-kilter tones associated with shadowy Berlin nightclubs, each offering transcendent melodies and hypnotic basslines that instantly transport listeners to imaginary dancefloors.
Recorded over the course of two years in the windowless bunker he crafted as his home studio in Sydney, Golden Features’ dark and twisted aesthetic is thread throughout each of the album’s nine tracks, with his gritty, meticulous creative process evident in the project’s sound and theme. Interlaced with elements of hyperpop, techno, and future house, the record chronicles as Golden Features learns to accept the unavoidable; that flaws are inherent and make us human.
The record is reflective of Golden Features’ reconnection with underground electronic music and the worldly energies that first inspired him. It possesses a modern, forward-thinking approach derived from his adventure-seeking personality and desire for new experiences that led him to Berlin.
Throughout his time as a soloist and with ODESZA as BRONSON, Golden Features has garnered a reputation as an electronic music maverick with his distinctively rebellious sound. Utilizing his ability to manipulate melodic notes and rhythmic patterns in a way that communicates his trials and triumphs, Sisyphus is an intimate body of work representative of the artistry and creative mind behind the golden mask he’s donned throughout his career.
Stream Sisyphus out now via Foreign Family Collective and catch Golden Features live on the Sisyphus Tour this summer.
