Culture of fear is the sixth studio release from ambient electronica duo Thievery Corporation. The album may have been released in June of 2011 but it possesses a message that is just as relevant now, ten years later, as it was then. It tells the Faustian story of the price of safety and security in the surveillance age and it does so beautifully. Web Of Deception is, all at once, soulful, powerful, and introspective. Followed immediately by the album’s title track it seems to challenge us with everything we’re NOT being told by those we trust with security in our increasingly dangerous world. Take My Soul is a beautiful and melodic reminder that freedom costs nothing less than everything. The hypnotic interlude entitled Light Flares perfectly sets the stage for the seeking reggae-fueled sound of Stargazer. The seventh track is the provocative and powerful Tower Seven that never lets one forget the dubious auspices of one of the darkest and most uncertain events in the modern world’s history. Is It Over and Fragments serve as powerful memorials to the smoldering aftermath. False Flag Dub in between makes no pretense regarding the machinations of this grim entry into the new world order. The final two tracks Overstand and Free nicely round out the theme while making this album a beautiful kinetic mural of our modern circumstance. This album is one sonic plateau after another and is an infinitely listenable collection of vignettes of relevance and reality. It serves not only as a reminder but also an inevitable oracle.
