After releasing two critically acclaimed records and then promptly disappearing into the void, Jackson Scott reemerged with Psychometry, the debut full-length from his latest project, Votaries. Rooted in the dense atmospherics of drone-rock and the woozy textures of shoegaze, Votaries represents both a continuation and a reinvention of Scott’s idiosyncratic musical vision. With Psychometry, he sidesteps the aesthetic nostalgia that dominates much of the genre and instead leans into something more elemental and instinctual.

Where Scott’s earlier work flirted with the surreal, Psychometry is fully submerged in it. The album unspools like a fever dream: guitars waver and pulse with hypnotic repetition, forming undulating backdrops against which his lyrics probe the psychic terrain of annihilation, desire, rage, and transcendence. Vocals melt into the mix, layered and spectral, recalling a similar style to pioneers, My Bloody Valentine, but venturing slightly further into an almost hallucinatory sound.