Points Of No Return – V/A || Beacon Sound (2020) – Album Review

Album: Points Of No Return

Artist: Various Artists

Release Date: August 7, 2020

There’s nothing quite like discovering a two hour long, 22-track quasi-ambient compilation album released by a local Portland label on a cold Autumn Saturday morning. We can all sit here and have the talk about how each contributor brings a personal signature to this experience or how this album stands as a testament to the force of collaboration, or whatever else borderline toxic positivity dreck a writer can conjure up when reviewing an album like this. But let’s just be honest and say that sometimes compilations are a mishmash of noise that feels forced and … blah. Then there are other compilations, like this one, that are cohesive and form a kind of covalent bond. Every track on this album feels connected in some way to the previous track and the track that follows it. No simple feat.

After listening to this, I’m convinced Beacon Sound could herd a colony of street cats into a coordinated mission to Mars. Points of No Return carries the gravity of collaboration done right. You might get a little jolt from some of the tracks like meroitic’s ‘there are no dead’ or MYMK’s ‘Shadow Choir’, but some how they fucking fit perfectly.Grand gestures aren’t needed and there’s no loose ends if you can believe it. It’s just sustained focus over two hours of exquisite collaboration.

I think what’s slightly annoying about this album is that now I have to check out each one of these artist’s discographies which is going to take up a good portion of my weekend. The bottom line is, as the final tones of Kinematik‘s track fade, the only thing that lingers is the sense that everyone involved understood what was asked of them.

Find the time to listen to this album. Would highly recommend.