Mark Harwood – or, Urim [LP]

"Mark Harwood follows up his 2022 offering with the new album, or, Urim.

or, Urim showcases a no holds barred approach to plunderphonics, resulting in a human head to hard drive battle of natural and synthetic emotion. or, Urim combines elements of psychedelia, progressive rock, progressive electronics, abstract electronics, avant classical and extreme electronics.

Harwood was born in 1972 and therefore resides in the rare pocket of humans that experienced both human and synthetic dominance within the span of their lives. There were and only will be some of us. 

or, Urim is a dusty digital futuristic head trip for generation then, now and next.

or, Urim is a record delighting in wholesale theft whilst occupying a meditation on the shifting tides of human and non-human dominance.

Utilising pre-existing musical forms for new forms is as old as DJ Kool Hercs. We live in an age where an 8 year old kid can be fined for recontextualising an 8 second long snippet of a soul song from 68, whilst certain ketamine fueled companies can scrape the entire history of culture for capital gain.

Harwood teases a hearing aid to the new ear of hope, fear, doubt, dread and dreams de jour."

Penultimate Press, 2025