LA producer and musician Rusty Santos, known for his work with Animal Collective/Panda Bear, has shared “Master Zodiac” and the accompanying lyric video from artist Nicholas Law. The track is off his forthcoming album High Reality, due out via London Lo Recordings, on July 22.

“”Master Zodiac” is an epic rock song about the nature of reality. It centers on a godlike character that sends us answers from a higher dimension for all the questions we don’t know. The music has a psychedelic feel like some of my early work as a producer, featuring electronic tapestries over an acoustic foundation. The melodic theme of the song first came to me as a teenager. I wasn’t able to finish it until I had the musical and life experience of an adult. The lyric video was created by video & graphic artist Nicholas Law.” -Rusty

A self-produced and recorded return after Santos’ last solo outing Eternity Spans, the new album features nine brand new songs performed on guitar, synths, piano, electronic / acoustic drums and bass that contemplate one’s place in the universe, mental health struggles and our relationships with others.

Santos explains the jarring series of events that led to the creation of this album – “These songs were created from a place of necessity after I had been hospitalized and involuntarily held in a facility due to a psychotic break, which was brought on by tactics I faced by others in the music industry. It took the efforts of some artist friends and label contacts I work with to intervene and get me released. The people in charge at the facility didn’t believe I was a record producer. The album title, High Reality, is the name I’ve given to the state of consciousness I was in while detached from day-to-day reality during my crisis.”

Rusty Santos is known for his involvement in the electronic psychedelia scene along with friends and contemporaries Black Dice, Animal Collective and Gang Gang Dance, and many other artists. He released a pair of solo albums on the UUAR imprint and then went on to create the group The Present. Known mostly for his work with Animal Collective when he produced their celebrated Sung Tongs album in 2004 and then collaborated again with Panda Bear on his landmark album Person Pitch and the more recent album Buoys. Prior to living in New York, Rusty sang and played guitar in West Coast art-punk bands from his hometown of Fresno, California and later became enamored with the possibilities of electronic music once attending his first rave. Santos now lives in LA where he is active as a producer—including Black Dice’s album Mod Prog Sic, Jackie Mendoza’s EP Luv HZ, songs for the Chilean rapper-artists LIZZ, Ginla’s album Everything.

Rusty Santos
High Reality
Lo Recordings
Track List

1. Dream In Stereo
2. All Things Phasin’
3. Master Zodiac
4. Symbolic
5. Apocalypses
6. Kick Out The Spirit
7. Juggernauts
8. Life Or Death
9. Child Of The Night

Pre-order High Reality by Rusty Santos HERE