132. Fifteen Minutes of Fame Recaps: Album Review of Approaching the Horizon by Kiffie
Originally Published on May 13th, 2025
About the Artist
Last July was the first month I started writing the reviews for Fifteen Minutes of Fame. I’m so many ways, I had to hit the ground running because those first articles consisted work with some incredibly dynamic artists. One of those artists was Kiffie, an electronic musician out of the UK. He had just released the album Living Past Midnight. I honestly can’t tell you what I was expecting when I pressed play to that album but I can tell you I wasn’t expecting what I got.
I am a fan of electronic music, but I’ve always found its depth in the musicality; how a certain melodic phrase can build over repetition, by incorporating layered elements around that phrase. Living Past Midnight certainly had that, but the depth to the music had so much more meaning. The entire album was so well thought out, deriving from the idea of exploring the consequences of war. Identifying and analyzing victims of war. Addressing the horrors and fears we face as a race of people living in a world that watches the metaphorical “doomsday clock,” inch closer and closer to the apocalyptic time of midnight.
Kiffie introduced a world of angst, survival, desperation, and despair. It just as easily played as a futuristic prediction as it did a survey of German-occupied Europe in the 30’s and 40’s of the twentieth century; as it explored the dangers of authoritarianism, dictatorship, and the consequences of evil men having power.
It was ominous for me, an American, to listen to this album because the writing was being scribbled on the wall at that very moment in my own very torn, very divided country. Now, in retrospect, it almost hurts to hear the accuracy of Kiffie’s words as I see how effectively they apply to our situation as democracy’s breath gets more and more rattled. Our nation is desperate to find our way back to the liberties we fought so hard for, for so long, and we are powerless to do so.
It’s not a knock against Kiffie’s music, it’s in fact a complement. There is so much meaning that envelopes his music. He applies it in the lyrics, the composition, and the production, and he does so with significant detail. So, it brings me great joy to see a new album of his released and available to the world.
About the Album
Approaching the Horizon is a 10 - song electronic/techno album by the UK artist, Kiffie. The release of this album was staggered I. Three parts, with the vinyl pre-sale taking place on April 19th, a full digital release on May 2nd, and a Special Edition CD release scheduled for June 2nd. Approaching the Horizon serves as the final album of the Home trilogy, after last year’s Living Past Midnight and 2023’s A Sense of Unease. It has a run time of approximately 40 minutes.
About the Music
Approaching the Horizon is a resonating piece of music, as it explores “the perception of eternal love.” As with all of Kiffie’s music, his albums play as one constant epic rather than individual tracks. Each song leads to a new chapter of a bigger story. Considering the subject matter, the album opens with a darker, more solemn feel, but as the story progresses, shifts to brighter, more atmospheric sounds, even pulling inspiration from 80’s synth pop music.
Each track references Physical Science, either directly or indirectly, with references to different theories, subjects of study, and more. The album opens with Dark Matter. Dark Matter sneaks into the introduction with a phasing synth part. I chimed melody plays over the top of the synth with a steady kick percussion before full percussion coming in with Kiffie’s vocals. Dark Matter is an ominous, desperate sounding piece of music, as it progresses with building anxiety.
This transitions into the atmospheric song, The Exclusion Principle, which refers to the Pauli exclusion principle that states, in quantum mechanics an atom or molecule cannot possess electrons that consist of the same four electronic numbers. As The Exclusion Principle is an instrumental piece, I love how Kiffie addresses this concept by playing simultaneous synth arpeggios that sort of chase each other in a round; never existing at the exact same time.
Spaghettification is the third track and its name is derived from String Theory, more specifically, that the “strings” are like pasta noodles, allowing for more unpredictable, yet inevitable interaction, or “entanglement.” Spaghettification, is a driving song that plays on inevitability, as Kiffie warns “that gravity is coming for ya.” The bass synth is a very moving, very definitive progression of music.
Heat Death is the first significant nod to an 80’s style of synth pop sound. I hear music that has been inspired by legendary performance artist, David Bowie within this work.
My favorite track on the entire album is Entanglement. Once again, referencing a theorized consequence of String Theory, Entanglement has a particularly fascinating feeling as I listen to it. It’s the feeling of “deja vu” meeting “The Mandela Effect.” I swear I have heard Kiffie perform this melody in another song somewhere else. If he did, I am not finding it. I think this is incredible as it delves into the science fiction of entanglement, as I feel myself on the cusp of reaching out and touching a parallel universe on this one, as I interact with another Jeff who has heard the same song, in an alternate, similar universe.
United (In Fusion) plays like a spectrum of light as the arpeggiated synth merges with the ambient synths layered in the background of this song. The progression of the song isn’t predictable, yet it flows in a disciplined order of music theory and supports a strong vocal performance.
Approaching the Horizon closes with Made by Stars, an overwhelmingly uplifting love poem that describes a universal love/attraction that was forged by the same matter that comprises the stars in the sky. In the calculated Kiffie fashion that has driven each of his projects, the lyrics are multi-faceted in how they tie into each topic being covered. The lyrics have components of love and physics, with Kiffie addressing one topic through analogy of the other. If there is one component to align with the elations of love, it would have to be the universe.
Final Thoughts
Here’s the thing that keeps me coming back to Kiffie’s music. It sounds like a project that lived inside his head long before it was laid down, pressed to vinyl, and digitally distributed for the world to hear. What I mean is, I get the sense that Kiffie lived with this music in his head for a while, not daring to record it until he knew exactly how it was meant to be.
Approaching the Horizon sounds like pure imagination. It sounds like the abstract. The extraordinary, the abnormalities, the fiction that derives from an unbelievably nonfiction premise. Or, if we want to take a page out of Kiffie’s book, we can say this process may have been a bit like the uncertainty principle for him. All of these ideas just bouncing around in his head. It may have been maddening to him, not knowing whether or not this cat was alive or dead.
Approaching the Horizon rips the lid off of Erwin Schrödinger’s box as a resounding conclusion to Kiffie’s epic trilogy of albums comes to a brilliant and significant end. Approaching the Horizon doesn’t exist to defy physics, it confirms it. It is universal. It is significant. It argues our existence is fueled by the spiritual unknowns, the elemental, intangible force that is love. It is a metaphor for one, a metaphor for all. As Kiffie has demonstrated, it is more expansive than the theorized Big Bang, and it is eloquent and magnificent.
Follow Kiffie:
Additional Media:
Listen to Approaching the Horizon:
You can further support Kiffie by purchasing physical copies of Approaching the Horizon by clicking Physical Media on his Bandcamp profile!
Do not wait, go press play!
Comments
Post a Comment