Spencer Sabo has been making his art since he was a teen. He's a Boston guy, which might not mean anything or means tons for his rep.

He's a visual guy for sure. He needs the finished product to be seen to be understood and his film making ventures -- which is something that could either make one stand out or become lost in the content ocean -- has a lot to do with that.

Sabo needs to get into something to understand it and his use of mixed media skills are essential.

Which is why the psychedelic music genre can never be exhausted, especially if you've been training for it your entire life like Spencer has.

Not to say that he's intentionally going for that but, when you're dealing with his Mind The Journey project, it's easy to see he's got a vision for the textures he's constructing from the other side of your speakers.

Spencer Sabo with a drum kit — Spencer Sabo in our lab. He doesn't know it's a two-way mirror. We're about to see what he does with them drum sticks. Oh, just Mind The Journey will ya!? [Image by Independent Music Promotions / Facebook]

He wants you to see the music and not just feel it. And that's a unique feat altogether. Not something anyone can accomplish but then, I can't confirm that he's thinking on that level. It's also possible he doesn't even know he's doing it. And Sabo's latest release Color In The Gray Machines is 12-tracks of that!

Yet, since I like to have a little order for context, I want to mention very briefly his previous released self-titled EP from January of last year.
[bandcamp width=350 height=470 album=1603254763 size=large bgcol=333333 linkcol=2ebd35 tracklist=false]
What i've gathered is that he went through the process of putting together a cohesive idea in that release, which he stuck with from beginning to end. There's direction there and while it's lo-fi, it's a fully functional piece of moody, synthereal music.

See what I did there?
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHYsXugfjPo[/embed]
Tracks like When It Happens, Time And The Sea and even Sadly Smile are some stand outs which are still unified to that idea.

And even if I'm wrong in thinking that, the difference between his debut and Color In The Gray Machines is hard to dismiss as this new releases feels like, he created two different EPs.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2658286984 size=small bgcol=333333 linkcol=e99708 track=4075402254]

In the first half we have a balance of sparse and abstract pop such as his Damon Albarn style track Desserts or the rapid flow of International Romance, where he hits the ground running by just setting up a beat box, getting into a flow where everything he throws at it sticks, before he broadens it out.

Sabo also adds these tiny pieces of instrumental music in the begging which, at first, I thought were just abandoned ideas that padded space between tracks.

And even though I'm pretty familiar with that format, I can't see the point in making them separate individual tracks rather than making them part of whatever track follows.

Spencer Sabo of Mind The Journey — "When the students got their year books, every image was of Spencer Sabo. It was definitely the year of the Sabo..." *not a true story, by me. [Image by Independent Music Promotions]

I think it has to do with what feels right and if it means giving them their own track numbers, then fine.

And those tracks are also not abandoned ideas, because Sabo clearly doesn't suffer from writer's block. Eventually, you can feel them in the melodies of the other songs.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4IkVEEXM64[/embed]

The other half of the album happens when Dream Demon kicks in but then it's nothing entirely new. To me, it sounds like he's coming back to his 2015 album but with better constructed songs.

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And if I had to chose, I would say that Boats is my favorite song on this album as I think Spencer's ability to force my mind to bend around his concepts, has exhausted me to the point where I have to accept this track as the one that stands out.

Either because I settled for something less or he trained my ear to his style.

At this point, I can genuinely appreciate this man's work and see there's a real piece of, hastily constructed concept-engineering going on here that will grow on you until they're perfect.

I think you'll hear and visualize something very different and new in the end.