Justin Sweatt : Permian Tapes Vol. 2

Justin Sweatt has covered a lot of musical ground over the last decade plus. Hazy Komische to sweaty dance floor bangers to cosmic synth drifts to pastoral ambient trips, Sweatt approaches them all like a composer telling a story through sound. And for a large swath of that time he worked under the moniker Xander Harris. Under that nom de plume Justin released via several labels(Not Not Fun, Rock Action, Data Airlines, Burning Witches Records), all connected by Justin’s unique approach to the work.

On Justin Sweatt’s latest release, the vast and heady Permian Tapes Vol. 2, Justin releases under his own name and lays out a long meditation on the electronic music form. Recording these tracks over the last three years, Sweatt has captured sounds and moods he’s dabbled in from 2011s Urban Gothic(as Xander Harris) to his latest EP 1 from 2022. Permian Tapes Vol. 2 explores moods and emotional landscapes via circuital journeys from the point of view of a weary traveler making his way through a dystopian existence.

Sweatt works in colors of vast landscapes and hair line horizons that reveal worlds in the tiniest of details. From the lightning crack-lit opener “Dronhenge” and it’s menacing droning synth to the dusty and ethereal keys of “Goodbye To A River”, Justin builds scenes, moods, and worlds that feel like something between Paris, Texas and Dune. Wide open spaces that can feel both awe-inspiring and claustrophobic at the same time. “Last Tango In Post” shakes and shivers with positive juju as you can almost imagine scenery blurring by a car window as a desert vein of a highway carries you through mountain-shaded desolation.

Elsewhere “Switched Off” is an epic Krautrock jam. A Motorik beat carries us along for 12 minutes of deep Komische exploration, but with an almost Gothic lean. It sounds like if Pornography-era Robert Smith got really into Harmonia’s Musik Von Harmonia and laid down a Berlin School jam between “The Figurehead” and “A Strange Day”. “Aphorisms” buzzes and plinks like a Reznor/Ross score, while album closer “Coyanosa Moon” settles into ambient colors giving the album an optimistic outlook to end on.

The dystopian road trip comes to an end.

Permian Tapes Vol. 2 is another fantastic album from Justin Sweatt. Sweatt continues to explore and expand his sound while staying true to those sonic trips he took us on with albums like Termination Dust, California Chrome, and Say Your Goodbyes. This is a journey kind of album. You hit play in the car, put it in Drive, and see where you end up as the last song plays. Then you hit play again. Repeat.