uppers

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Uppers is the second album of a two-part release together with Downers. Uppers is a bit more compact and tighter than Downers, and I would say it has a slightly more dreamlike feel.

The track “Looming” was made using VCV Rack 2 Pro and was originally much longer, but I decided to shorten it for the EP because it is fairly simple and I wanted to keep a sense of movement throughout the release, up until the ambient outro “withering away in a digital sunset.”

“Doomed” was originally in 4/4 before it was changed to 5/4.

The track “In the salvia spire” was originally intended for another album I was working on at the time, which is now called Nuke in transit. The track “suicide” was also originally meant for that album and was much shorter. That album was eventually released at the end of 2025.

I started working on this album around June 2024 alongside various other projects, and it was finished in August 2024. There are also several tracks that were meant to be part of the EP but were either scrapped or never finished. You can listen to those below.

The album cover is a heavily processed macro photograph I took of a fly. Unfortunately, I can no longer find the unedited photo. There are no alternative covers for this EP. I was satisfied with the first one right away. There is, however, some short video material, which you can also view below.

Spotify · Apple Music · Bandcamp

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"I wanted to buy cigarettes, but I couldn’t work out where, so I stepped behind the counter. The woman immediately got angry and sent me to one of the two desks. I walked over. The guy behind the desk was working intensely and didn’t acknowledge me. When I asked whether I could buy cigarettes here, he suddenly got furious and burst into tears. Through tears he told me the shop was now inside the drawer of his desk. I didn’t believe him, which upset him even more, and then he yanked the drawer open. Inside there really was a tiny version of the shop, complete with the woman from the counter. When he pulled the drawer out, she toppled onto the floor and stared up at me. I asked what was in the other drawers, and he showed me, still crying. Each drawer contained a miniature shop, including the _ and the _. He said he couldn’t take it anymore and would probably kill himself, but didn’t dare because he had a daughter. He told me that if I still wanted cigarettes, I’d have to go into the drawer. So I did. The woman behind the counter was gone. Instead, a small child stood behind the register, smoking. I saw they still had vapes, so I asked what flavors they had. The child said “tobacco” a few times, and then, very quietly, “kiwi.” I said okay, I’ll take kiwi. The child told me I shouldn’t say it so loudly, otherwise he’d call the police. I said okay, but that I still wanted it, and he took it down from the wall. When I tried to pay, the whole building shifted. Apparently the drawer was being pulled open, and I saw a police officer peering down into the store through the ceiling."