Out today is Jogger’s album This Great Pressure, the first release on Magical Properties, Daedelus’ new imprint for Alpha Pup Records. Made up of Amir Yaghmai (violin, guitar, vocals) and Jonathan Larroquette (laptop, controller, vocals), Jogger rolls your brain around in a freshly finished sound, a future folk rocktronica hybrid that ranges the gamut of human emotions and music styles, from the feeling of the loving caress of a mother to that of being thrown into a volcano, from the picks of a banjo to the intensity of techno and drum and bass, from heavy metal howls to soft whispers to whomp. Listenable but never simply palatable, enthusiasts of every musical persuasion will find something to relish about This Great Pressure, which represents a new paradigm of beat science, electronic experimentation, indie rock and the unalienable groove.

Utilizing a tight mesh of live and electronic instruments along with the visceral harmonies of the two artists’ voices, Jogger’s new release is a psychedelic experience that is emotive, weird, dangerous, captivating, scary and funny, often all at the same time. A definite ribbon of folk-feel and psych-pop runs through the album, which draws from the musical elements of many decades. However these are the folk of the future, a post-apocalyptic breed of humans that live in tribes and trade poems for pure water. Perhaps it is the location of Jogger’s production, Los Angeles, that has bled this end-of-the-world ethos into each track; it is almost as if the West Coast setting demands the superharmonic nature of the album, for at this point it is either get along, or die. This Great Pressure captures all the gritty dirtiness of human reality as well as the soaring energy of hope that careens through slick city streets, and one can understand this poignant dichotomy no matter where on earth one calls home.

Starting off with “Napping Captain” and a crunchy sound of typing insects shuffling cards, the future folk-feeling grabs hold of the track and begins to steer, quickly finding the groove and then pounding out a happy banger suitable for any era. “Gorilla Meat” showcases one of the saddest lyrics of this millennium: “She’s not meeting you tonight/Not tonight, not forever,” amidst a dreamy forest where the trees are all guitar strings and only the synths can lead you away from the spot where you wait; after all, it’s pointless.

As large as a national park, “In America” is an encompassing tune, hugging you with the warm bleep of tomorrow and then pushing you into it. “Nephicide” is a metallic hallucination with a zany approach, featuring the freakish growling monster voices of an evil god working with rich rock guitar layers to frenzy your mind into a fearful lather and then lay your tortured psyche back down softly, like a caring parent tucking you back into sleep after a horrible nightmare. You have survived the nephicide.

The final track “Superman” (live) hosts the familiar strains of a hundred nights out, as robot sirens seek to pull you into their world with a hypnotic chant- hope you have tied yourself to the mast. With a magnetic captivation this track is an ideal end to the album, layering an alien tongue over insanely slicing drums, held together by the strains of a guitar and capped of with a shot of wobble and wonk to clear your head before all hell breaks loose at the end, and all the spirits are released. Including yours.

Such a broad palette of musical styles and sound echoes the theory that in order to know true bliss, you must have experienced pure despair. “This Great Pressure” captures the entire pendulum of emotions, and in this way, it is music for grown-ups, for those who have touched both. Each track is so rich in diversity that it seems like Jogger wants to you to taste the expanse of the aural universe from the sad longing of never to the euphoria of escape. However something tells me all that the 18+ kids at Low End Theory tomorrow for the This Great Pressure Record Release Party will be all over the album and Jogger’s live performance like, well, minors on cheap beer. Either way perhaps they, like Los Angeles itself, are just ahead of the curve.

Buy "This Great Pressure" on Bleep, Boomkat, iTunes and Amazon.