“The title comes from the legendary Boots of Blinding Speed in Morrowind. In the game, they give you incredible speed but at the cost of your vision. It’s a perfect metaphor for my own journey: constant movement without knowing where I’m headed,” artist Moa Pillar shares about the eye-catching title of his cathartically hopeful new album.

Drowning in the beautifully paced, chaotically balanced beats, you get a gasp of air every time a new melody overtakes the track. The rhythm of a fast beating heart blends with the dramatic and often unexpected sound until it begins to exist in unison. The body disappears into the music, simultaneously feeling through the artist’s complex emotions that keep morphing and transforming as one track takes the place of another. The tracks themselves change almost seamlessly, only reminding you how in life, emotional transitions are not always conscious, yet in the subtle changes of our inner rhythm we sense the journey of life.

“Expanding on the techniques of Well Balanced Rollback, the album balances jittery, bass-heavy aggression with sweeping, dramatic soundscapes filled with a haunting sense of doomed hope.”

Boots of Blinding Speed takes the confusion of movement, instability of circumstance and the undeniable fragility of familiarity, transforming it into a combination of fast-paced and, at times, even melancholic soundscapes. It echoes through body and soul, reminding the listener to expect the unexpected. A strong, speedy beat paired with a hypnotic, almost ethereal sound, blending perfectly, pushing and pulling on each other but never fully giving into one another, makes the brain let go, and the mind finds peace in the freedom such collision of sound creates.

“I arrived at this form when I realised how important freedom is to me and the ability to reach a kind of catharsis through sound,” Moa Pillar comments.

At the core of the album is truth—it is sometimes uncomfortable and inconvenient but always liberating.

“As a professional sound designer and composer, I create a lot of music and sound in my work. But in my personal artistic exploration, it’s essential for me to be as honest as possible, to let the music write through me rather than the other way around.”

This album represents the journey of that artist without saying a word. You can feel the emotional confusion of the constant change caused by circumstances rooted in tragedy and the lack of control they bring forth. You can’t define a single emotion you take away from Boots of Blinding Speed just as much as you can’t control the feelings it will awaken. It is a journey to be experienced fully, with no reservations and no fear. In return for Moa Pillar’s honesty, all the listener has to do is truly listen.

On the making of the album and the changes he and the music went through over time, the artist shares: “I started writing it right after the war began when I relocated to Armenia. I finished it on the outskirts of East London. This album is my attempt to understand myself and the people around me in the midst of everything that’s been happening. That understanding kept shifting over time. If I had released this album in 2023, it would’ve been completely different — a heavy, unrelenting slab of sound.”

Boots of Blinding Speed is calm and dramatic. It’s pure and raw, yet organised in the most liberating of ways. It is a trip into the artist’s heart, a journey through his highs and lows. It is the stillness you find in movement.

“I’ve been making music for most of my life, and it’s my truest way of communicating with the world. Because of that, the kind of music I make tends to evolve alongside who I am as a person,” shares Moa Pillar.

You can listen to Boots of Blinding Speed on SoundCloud: Moa Pillar

and Spotify: Boots of Blinding Speed

Keep up with the artist on Instagram: @moarock