Leonidas & Hobbes’ Pockets Of Light is a concept album. Conceived during the COVID-19 lockdowns, it’s primarily concerned with the future of mankind and our environment. Developing decidedly Sci-Fi scenarios, as it throws conspiracy theory, UFO cover-ups, and Ai apprehension into the mix. It’s a heartfelt project, that attempts to harness the dread we all felt, and continue to feel about the current state of our planet. The record’s press cites some heavy references, from Plato, to Kerry Thornley, and Philip K. Dick, which smacks of reading, searching for enlightenment, while bombarded with dis / mis-information couped up behind those locked doors. The record’s themes are underlined with sampled speeches, which appear throughout.

While this preamble might make you picture a PhD thesis, this is music for both your mind and your body, and the tracks travel back and forth between beatless ambience, downtempo diversions, and definite dance-floor moments. Space Symphony sounds suitably like an opening ceremony, beginning with a Cape Canaveral countdown / Tranquility Base broadcast set to shimmering drones and the noise of a cheering crowd. The Perturbed Mind is cosmic jazz, complete with celestial choir, hitched to a head-nodding hip hop beat. Its sampled narrator, Terence McKenna, explaining the workings of a psychedelic experience. A deep exploration of inner / outer space, Reality 2.0 switches from laser-blasted electro, rocked by black hole echo, to swinging, syncopated house. The dialogue on Reboot deals with releasing the masses from authoritarian conditioning, while the backing builds from tabla to sophisticated techno. Magik is more erudite electronica that demonstrates the duo have put in way more than the prerequisite 10, 000 hours when it comes to producing soulful machine music. What Is In Space? is a synthscape with a real sense of zero gravity, and sinister John Carpenter-esque chords. Peppered with little loops of percussion, it also features what I think is part of a US presidential address, proclaiming the noble aim to “Replace suspicion with understanding, hostility and isolation with compassion, ignorance with free exchange of knowledge…” Clearly influenced by The KLF and The Orb, Space Raga’s serene circuitry textures toy with Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’s tone poem. Water weaves children’s voices and news broadcasts about Hurricane Ian into programmed percolating patterns, fashioning a slow, acidic frequency float. Lost In Space, detailed with SFX and disembodied voices, is a trip worthy of Timothy Leary.

For me personally, though, the pair are at their peak when moving while spreading their message. Aftermath, for example, excels at squelching, gurgling, and grooving, its bell-like riff recalling Fini Tribe’s Balearic fave, De Testimony. RSVP is another smart shot of introspective acid / tech house. Keep Livin’, the LP’s lightest moment, is a fine fusion of their touchstones of techno, jazz, and electro.

Central to the album is a monologue from the Louis Malle movie, My Dinner With Andre:

It’s this clip, where Andre talks of media brainwashing and Orwellian state control, that gives the record its title. The Pockets Of Light, are Andre’s beacons in the dystopian dark. Oases of optimism, based on the notion that a network of communities, underground enclaves committed to escape, can together foster a new, free society. I certainly hope that’s the case, but it won’t happen if we all sit around doing nothing. No one’s gonna hand us this future on a plate. 

Leonidas & Hobbes’ Pockets Of Light is out now on Hobbes Music.