NON, essentially a moniker for Denver-based noise artist Boyd Rice, harnesses the power of the latest in audio technology for the new album Children of the Black Sun. The CD comes packaged with an extra audio DVD featuring a 5.1 mix, a stunning listening experience if you happen to have a couple of grand to drop for the proper high-tech stereo system. But regardless of the level of audio sophistication in your home, the music is sure to overwhelm you with its powerful and dreamy atmospherics that summon visions of an underworldly realm. The symphonic noise that composes the album is at once terrifying and transcendent, allowing the willing listener to be guided along a path to more abstract states of mind that aren’t always pretty.

Infamous for, among other things, his oft-misinterpreted usage of Nazi symbolism, Boyd Rice makes heavy use of mystic concepts this time around to bring an impressive level of sophistication to the concept of music as a tool for a mind trip. The result is an experience more cerebral than emotional. So if music for the psyche rather than the heart is not what you’re looking for, skip over this one. But if you still hold enough of an attention span to engage in a hypnotic, searing mental experience, then you couldn’t find a better new release to experiment with than this.

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