Taking its name from a skateboard / snowboard trick / move, award-winning musician / composer Mica Levi’s latest release, Slob Air, occupies a single side of a Hyperdub 12. Clocking in at nearly 13 minutes digitally, and 17 on the vinyl, the track is an emotional epic.

Riding loose funk drums – a little echoed, a little distant – it’s repetitive, hypnotic, mediative, immersive, and on the surface very little seems to change. The rhythm is rigid, locked tight, while a sighing synth line rises and falls in waves. It’s one of those tunes that rockets along, while you stand still within it. Thoughts and landscapes rushing by, like being a passenger on a runaway bullet train. Hurtling toward the future, and you, powerless to stop it. Careering yet calming. Although I’d surely dance to it if played loud.

Indecipherable vocals, sort of chants, slowly surface. The voice, almost  out of earshot, providing a fresh focus. Mica speaking in tongues. A beautiful, beatific babble. Drawing you deeper in. Absorbing you more and more, while bursts of sub bass occasionally, briefly break the trance. Symphonic shifts in key create a dynamic, while the synthetic strings sometimes bank and threaten to soar. The magic all in the mix.

Mica Levi’s Slob Air is out now on Hyperdub.