In what is simultaneously the most chaotic and thought-out album that I’ve gotten to write about, Unconscious Prophet, also known as Malachi, shares his voice and his ear for the different sounds littered throughout various art forms in his newest album, Universal Pace. I don’t know too much about Unconscious Prophet; while most artists write up detailed stories of their undying love for music and how it developed during their formative years, UP keeps his story fairly under wraps. In fact, in his e-mail to me, he mentioned that he was from Los York, New Angeles. I was way too stoned to comprehend this, and I will openly admit to googling it to see if, by some chance, it was a real place. You can never be too sure, and that’s just about the only defense I have for that. So maybe that means UP is between New York and LA, I’m not really sure, but I’ve already spent an embarrassingly long time trying to decode it. By looking at his Instagram page, you get a small window into how the gears turn in his mind. To find an artist whose way of life is pure artistry is a joy, and his feed provides his followers with a medley of music, beautiful drawings, and bizarre sketch/meme-like comedy (what the hell is the proper term for this?). And yet, every single Instagram post seems to explain the album further and further while at the same time, leaving me puzzled that it’s the same person creating all of this. I’m extremely excited to be writing about Universal Pace, although I am a bit anxious that I won’t do it justice just because of the moving pieces that have gone into every song. Malachi has listed every sample that has gone into each track on his Bandcamp, which I’ve listed to demonstrate the wide range that he’s incorporated into this project.