Jeff Mills - Eyewitness [LP] Vinyl Record

Double vinyl LP pressing. The Eyewitness is an album from Jeff Mills and it is composed from the perspective of an unknowingly complicit bystander and it is at the very least, psychologically pathological in nature. What this release is essentially proposing is an admission to the diagnosis that no one is immune to shock and trauma. The Eyewitness reveals a habitual pattern in the way it symbolizes a mirror reflection of mankind in it's most vulnerable moments. As an artist, what Mills is notoriously known for is the perspectives and paths he chooses to approach hefty, complex, and sometimes, awkward subjects. He suggests sound as a reflection and what listeners might be able to see in themselves. In the same vicinity of his recent solo albums, the direction, scope, and target of The Eyewitness is first about listeners, then about it. More than the few previous albums he's released lately, this one has a unique relationship in terms of imagery and visual treatments that represent the concept. The front cover shows Mills, neatly dressed in a black suit that ap-pears to be caught in the act of doing something methodically as he cohorts to support with a bright white type of surgical light towards the viewer. Other photos show him in darkened spaces. Remote and deep in thought. Other clues are the titles of the tracks such as "Sacred Iridescent Mirror (The Pledge)": this refers to the act of installing value and credit to something ambiguous, and "Menticide" which means the systematic effort to undermine and destroy a person's values and beliefs. In the opening track, "In A Traumatized World," listeners hear the narration spoken by Mills, in a language he specifically created for this album. It's a dialect that is designed to be undistinguishable, but spoken with a compassion that it could be sympathized with. In the latter part of the track, it reaches a climatic point. Meaning, "it" has happened. And the album is the evidence.