Album Review: Princess Century – Progress
2 min read
Canadian electronic artist Maya Postepski doesn’t seem to want to slow down. Being an active member of the Toronto music scene for more than 10 years, she’s a prolific remix artist, DJ and currently a part of electronic outfit Austra. It’s this enviable experience and genuine love for electronics that has seen her create side project, Princess Century. Her debut full length Progress is a wild journey right into the heart of the dark wasteland that is psychedelic dance music and serves as a masterclass for anyone who is interested in creating cool, slick dance music.
Progress, according to its delicious press release is a ‘journey through minimalist cosmic disco psychedelia, crossing through glacial poly-rythmic territories soaked in dark dripping goo’, a very comical yet entirely accurate description. The album could serve as a soundtrack for a retro, Neo-noir film but sounds so current it’s destined to be played in future darkly-lit rave-caves. It’s progressive, pulsating and just shy of 45 minutes in length, leaves you salivating for more. Listen to it in the dark with your eyes closed and relish in every detail of the soaring keyboard, pulsating beats and mechanical effects.
Each track is unique: Bros vs. UFOs is the perfect opener with it’s mechanical beats and creepy synth; Sunscream is a fun, disco anthem with an ode to the 80s chart-toppers and a naughty twist; and Fata Morgana has an unsettling 80s horror movie vibe to it. Yet when listened to from start to finish it all sounds so cohesive like a story, and it’s here that Postepski’s vision really shines. It’s clear she wants you to let go of your inhibitions and slither around dark corners with strangers, dancing uncontrollably to each elastic beat and letting your mind enter into her titillating and exciting world, a world that I’m eager to enter into more in the future.
