When listening to an album that one is going to review, it’s often tempting to scurry around cyberspace and see what others are saying about it. In the case of ‘Nebula Dance‘ I gave in to that temptation, and I’m ever so glad I did. All anyone seems to be talking about is genre. Yes, Ital Tek has previously made dubstep, and yes he has shifted into drum n bass on occasion. Yes, he even made the occasional venture into hip hop too. And now, yes, he’s apparently pushing the Chicago-bred sound of footwork. If you’re unfamiliar with footwork, have a squiz below at Dummy Mag’s ‘how to’ video. You’ll either find it enlightening or hilarious.

Now that everything genre-related is out of the way, talking about what the album actually feels like might be a swell idea..

He might use an odd pseudonym for his music, but when Ital Tek was just a young lad, his hand always popped up in the air when the teacher called “Myson, Alan” from the roll. Both versions of the man share the same brain, though and Nebula Dance is an intricate tour through its most intimate and diverse regions. There are endless possible cognitive processes that could’ve compelled Myson to create this music, so it’s impossible to be accurate. However, if (for some reason) you enjoy entirely fictional word-pictures which detail possible versions of these processes, please, read on.

A bonfire in central Africa raged thousands of years ago, and somehow Myson was there, eyes locked with a masked man. The masses chant as the two warriors dance compulsively around the fire, but the warriors hear nothing except the pounding of their calloused feet thumping into the dirt. Engaged in a competition of endurance and skill, they twist their bodies until breaking point, never letting an ounce of pain filter into their eyes. This memory loiters in a corner of Myson’s 21st century mind, until one day it mingles with his frantic modern thoughts. The jumbled vision flows through him strongly enough that he feels a profound compulsion to turn it all into danceable sound. He split these efforts into two parts – ‘Gonga’ and ‘Nebula Dance’, and they’re consciousness-altering chunks of sound.

‘Steel Sky’ sounds like unrealised desires, or perhaps a half-remembered dream. Soaring over a vast translucent landscape, Myson closes his eyes and absorbs the beauty of the smooth, delicate world in which he exists. But every now and then Tek’s thoughts falter and his mind’s playground intermittently fades, warps and becomes muffled.

‘Nebula Dance’ is full of breathtaking aural landscapes like these, so why not let your imagination run wild and leave thoughts about genre to someone else? If you want to experience this album (in fact all music) in an immersive and arguably more rewarding way, it’s a tactic worth trying. I mean, come on – we all know that dance-offs around bonfires are way more fun than asking yourself if something is dubstep or dnb. So put Ital Tek’s record on. Let him take you on a tour of his imagination by using your own.

Read more from Alessandro Dallarmi

‘Nebula Dance’ is out on Planet Mu Records. You can grab a copy here off iTunes.