Not to be confused with Kevin Saunderson's groundbreaking house project Inner City, this Innercity is a solo project of Belgian experimental musician Hans Dens, who runs tape label Why So Serious. Through dozens of limited cassette and vinyl releases, Innercity offers a warped, sometimes frightening perspective to the 21st century cosmic drone scene. His lo-fi synth-based soundscapes are closer in spirit to the shamanic mysticism of Popol Vuh than Tangerine Dream or Cluster, but he doesn't shy away from harsh, unsettling textures and feedback noise, resisting categorization as another new age revivalist. After more than a dozen cassette and CD-R releases on labels like Rotifer Cassettes, Ruralfaune, and Hobo Cult, Innercity's first vinyl release was 2010's Future Life on Belgian label Aguirre Records, an unsettling trip marked with eerie voices and occasional throbbing electronic rhythms. Several more releases followed in 2011, including a tape on Not Not Fun (Boy in Forest Trying to Hotwire the Earth), a 7" on NNA Tapes (Dada les Apocalypses), and LPs on Release the Bats/Ikuisuus (Backworld) and Aguirre (Terrestreality). Innercity's fourth vinyl LP, A Lion's Baptism, was released by Seattle-based Further Records in 2012, and pushed his sound into noisier, more disorienting directions. Following a few more handfuls of tapes and a 7" single ("Fading World Romance"), Innercity returned to Further Records in 2015 with his cryptically titled fifth LP, ABABABABABABAS (Blue Lion Child), which eschewed synthesizers in favor of guitar, violin, and effects, resulting in his harshest, most apocalyptic work yet. ~ Paul Simpson