Album Review: ESA - Sounds For Your Happiness
- Canis Lewis
- Jul 7
- 8 min read
Returning again with a masterful piece of work. J Blacker has indeed dropped one of the most dopamine inducing, furious dark dance albums of the decade.
We all know how much I love the music of ESA, especially with his ability to weave in and out of genres that very few can make work together.
This album is the tastiest thing you'll consume all year..
ESA Technologies Ltd is proud to announce the latest instalment in cutting edge emotional gathering technologies, all utilised to maximum potential in order to help us run the Simulation generator efficiently for you, our ‘Happiness Clients’.
Not a single drop is wasted in the process and the energy we take from you is funnelled directly into the generator, ensuring that your Simulation keeps running, without interruption and zero disruption to your wellness.
As part of this process, we offer you 75 minutes of completely fresh listening pleasure.
The happiness you will experience once you plug in, will inspire you with feelings of joy, peace and calm, which in turn will be converted into pure energy for us here at ESA Technologies Ltd.
Tracks such as ‘Pound of Flesh’, with its throbbing and ecstatic pump, ‘Something for the Horsemen’ with its wall of joyful black industrial and ‘Ratchet’ with its corroded wall of groovy noise…ensure that this new release will allow for a guaranteed and fully maximised pleasure experience.
J Blacker, architect of ESA, offers his new album 'Sounds for your Happiness' as the much anticipated follow up to 'Designer Carnage', released in 2022.
Two singles have already been released from the album during 2024. Those being the Mid paced Dark Techno power of 'Join Our Hands' and the Industrial Metal Gabber insanity of 'Rats Come Together.
'Sounds for your Happiness' is yet another milestone in the creative universe of ESA. Striking and thought provoking visuals, enormous electronics and powerful messages is always expected from an ESA release...
'Sounds for your Happiness' does not disappoint with any of these ingredients.
With this album, J Blacker paints ESA as a sinister technology company, with the musical structures from the album, utilised to create an emotional response from its listeners, which is transferred as energy to run the simulation we all live in. Its a nod to shows and films such as 'Severance and 'Soylent Green'.
Musically, 'Sounds for your Happiness' is a bleak and furious slab of electronic meat. With little respite in its 75minute run time. A journey of EBM / Industrial / Black Metal / Darkambient / Powernoise / Punk / Techno and Goa, 'Sounds for your Happiness' is as ambitious as it is exhilarating and genres merge seamlessly into an energetic free-fall of sonic chaos.
Get plugged in and let the happiness wash over you.
Released July 5, 2025
Mastered by Stephan Sutor
See ESA's first live show of the new album tour!
With performances from Iszoloscope and grabyourface!
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Venue is 229 near Camden with easy access from Regent's Park (Bakerloo line) or Warren street (Northern line) underground station.
STOP A MOMENT!
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Review
'Nothing After' opens with a brilliant touch, a tribute to..
You're then treated to some dark deep drums, kind of like if Robyn had been into industrial.. This track builds in intensity subtly and then beat bashes your face in with a sample drop of 'I'm fucking here!'.. Indeed you are Jamie, welcome back!
A lyrically angry track with pieces of audio mastery interlaced such as an incredible drum and vocal audio reverb repetition at around 2:40, and then some truly satisfying guttural growls at 2:54.
Straight away you can tell that Jamie has chosen to explore his black metal roots, this track throws in the incredible powernoise and industrial he's been known for in his last few albums, but starts to throw in the darker metal hints to get you ready for the subtle change in to some more metal later in the album. Regardless of genre though, this track is a dance fueled fight.
You hate them because you hate yourself
The description was right, 'Pound Of Flesh' does provide a fully maximised pleasure experience! High energy techno synths and a THUMPING beat and bass line. This track pounds out a procession declaring 'The King Has Returned!' There's rarely ever a moss pit in industrial shows but listening to this track with full noise cancelling headphones has me feeling feral - ready to mosh, and fight before it's even half way through.
'Caligula' the mad Emperor of Rome who thought himself a God..
Bugger me sideways this is a good track. BUT to truly appreciate this it needs to either be loud AF, or played in VERY good headphones. The bass alone is enough to make a man incontinent. Throw in some brilliant industrial 00's sound at 1:25 and this track becomes a pure filth dance track the likes of which only ESA can provide.
Just as Caligula lost his mind, the track takes a turn from the 'party' and slips in to a sense of insanity at 2:23, but when the bass drops back in the dance just becomes a little mad is all, and if you don't dance a little mad, do you even dance at all? Peak track.
Jupiter accepts your offering
DJs - get it on your club list. (And this next one!)
'Something For The Horsemen' scratched my brain deeply with buzzsaw sound and wasp like synths. Complete with horse sound samples and some heavy dark metal guitar riffs and speed pedals, glitch notes, and a sick drop after the vocal 'We'll fuck you real good!' this track has it all!
This song would utterly tear a club to pieces.
Check out my previous, full review of the single 'Join Our Hands'
'Rats Come Together' is also one I previously covered in full
HOWEVER this album has 'The album version' and it is indeed different in a few ways, some subtle, some easily heard. For instance at 2:39 the tracks throws in some abyssal choral singing, slows up a bit and plays more of the introduction sample. The ending throws in a lot more heavy guitar as well. These are to name but a few obvious additions.
Have a listen for yourself and wee how different it feels for you. Ultimately this track, and this version specifically - is quite possibly the pinnacle of musical perfection. Jamie has really outdone himself with this one.
..Makes me want to go play the new DOOM.
'Ratchet' like the name implies feels like a tribute to the early 00's and its rave scene, with its pounding and nostalgic tones, and a hope choir inclusion.
This track not only punches you in the face but it also makes sure you get back on your feet and checks that you're okay. It even throws in some nice little distorted synthwave to wrap it up.
What a mindfuck of a track - Brilliant!
'Fatigue' opens with a sense of trance with its serene sweeping synth, it distorts the choir sample from the previous track and slows it down with some reverb, it really does create a sense of fatigue.
This, to me, is quite interesting as Jamie said in an interview with me a couple years back that he very well may stop making ESA albums after Designer Carnage.. I'm glad he is pushing through the fatigue and still proving that he is the untouchable grandmaster on the scene.
You don't exist
'Golden House'.. Opening with a spoken history lesson by Konstantina (Who was the voice on the incredible 'One Missed Call') about Nero and Caligula? Hell yes, mixing two of my favourite things now -music, and ancient history.
One can't help thinking that talking about two of the worst leaders in history is quite poignant and relevant to the idiot leaders and collapsing world around us today.
(Having had a sneak peak at the upcoming video for it, after I wrote that ^ I'm glad to see I was correct in my assumption.)
It's great to hear a a German lady singing in industrial isn't it? And this track provides just that with Jo Hysteria from the band Massenhysterie who Jamie has worked with before on previous tracks. This is a debaucherous dance of fun that reminds me of a lot of the Designer Carnage album and pays homage to the style and sound of music he was so successful with in the past two albums.
'It Will Never Be Enough' is where the black metal roots I talked about earlier come in to full force. That famous sample 'I don not need my body' gives way to intense drums and metal guitars. Jamie tears at his vocal chords to deliver the full force of fury he is capable of singing.
Interestingly, at 2:20 after the same spoken sample, the track takes a turn instead in to rave territory with a steady beat and a sound in the back that sounds almost like a crowd chanting.
Each time that spoken sample comes back, the track throws in more to the mix, this time with a high tempo, waspish buzz synth and a deep cinematic intensity. Near the end we are even subject to an organ thrown in to the musical mix.
This is a true experimental track and it plays out damn good!
'Don't Leave Me Here' is a dark, prolonged cry for help. With moments of intensity, of calm, and of insanity. The piano, organ, and even I think a touch of Theremin makes for a shadow-work-esque journey in to your own mind. Like a Bladerunner plot twist scene, this track is not for the faint hearted.
The last song of the album is 'The Gallows You Built For Yourself' and my Gods, what a great name for a track.. Buzzsaw tones, ritual like power-drums, and a repeating sample of
'Who are you?, put you in a sort of trance. This only intensifies as Jamie begins to the lyrics of the song name and does so with greater aggression. Another journey through the mind this one.
Conclusion
ESA has proven once again why he sits upon a throne in the powernoise and industrial world.
Sounds For Your Happiness is an intriguing listen as it does often create profound moments of dopamine, and hedonistic dance filled joy; yet the theme of the album is that of insanity, of hatred, of division.
Much like Caligula and Nero mentioned in the album, J blacker plays this 'Fiddle' of an album, exploring the depth of his own mind, whilst the world burns around us and we all dance merrily to his tune, grateful for a a joy filled distraction in amongst the darkness of our age.
The poignancy of this theme can not be overstated.
This album is a true work of perfection.
Thank you!
(Make sure to come to the show!)
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