a debut universe built from memory, anxiety, and the courage to begin again

psychedelika pt. 1 arrive like a doorway into another dimension. seventeen tracks form a living kaleidoscope, each one a portal into friend of the blog kane’s inner world, where anxiety, nightlife, heartbreak, philosophy, and rebirth swirl together in saturated colour. it is a full visual album, a diary, a film, a survival mechanism, and a love letter to the self.

the new citizen kane, born kane michael luke and now based in london, moves across music, film, design, and performance like someone building whole worlds from the inside out. he makes music you feel first and understand later, weaving synths with memory, emotion, and strange little truths. it’s definitely pushing the edges of what a “pop” album can be.

after years away from music, kane returns not chasing charts, he is chasing truth, and you can hear that in every line.

welcome to psychedelika sets the scene like a mantra, a whispered invitation that opens the curtain on the era. stunning synths and production open this, and it feels less like a first song and more like a deep breath, easing you gently into the glowlights to come.

i don’t need to say bursts with intimacy in silence, sketching a love that lives in the unsaid details. it feels like two people who know each other so well that words would only get in the way, a soft, private track that hums along wonderfully. here, now delivers again, this time with a presence turned a small act of rebellion. in a world of constant distraction, kane pulls the focus back to breath, touch, and the room you are actually in. the vocal is great, it is meditative without losing its pulse, a reminder to arrive in your own life.

personal favourite – my muse – it’s a stunner. written after nearly a decade of silence, it carries the weight of that emptiness and the relief of finally breaking it. you can hear someone remembering who they are, realising that inspiration lives in honesty, not approval. ‘i packed my bags, i’m on my way’ finds hope in the finality of something ending, we love it.

heads are round takes francis picabia’s quote and turns it into a neon mind-map. big drums slap throughout this one, and thoughts twist and spiral, lyrics looping like internal monologue, while the production spins in bright fragments. it captures the chaos of modern thinking but still lands on hope, the belief that we can always change direction.pulse, a reminder to arrive in your own life.

san diego is all 1975, but with a sunlit ache. a love story written into a city’s pavements and palm trees. the track shimmers with warmth, then cools into heartbreak, leaving the place itself haunted by what used to be. another clear favourite for us at introvert disco.

eyes wide shut walks the line between desire and self-deception. you know something is off, but you stay, hoping the blur will hold. the production smudges at the edges, reflecting that hazy state where instinct and choice keep arguing. subconscious kicks off with madonna-style disco strings, before bursting into a pop disco masterpiece that feels like the companion piece to well, damn! here you are, tracing forbidden attraction and emotions that creep in when you are not looking. it feels like a secret you are half-trying to keep from yourself, half-hoping someone will discover it.

well, damn! here you are is all late-night temptation and rueful humour. the phone rings, you know you should ignore it, and you pick up anyway. trip hop shadows and disco pulse wrap around lyrics that feel like a 3am confession, catchy and self-aware, a messy cycle you recognise immediately. whispering tango slows the pace slighhtly with a wonky electronic dance of miscommunication, love slipping between languages and glances. the rhythm sways, the vocals lean close, and every step feels like a chance to get it right or lose it completely. it’s great.

push the fear out tackles prejudice with a grin and a dancefloor heart. the chorus feels like a rallying cry, turning monsters into illusions and strangers into neighbours. it is political, but painted in bright colours, reminding you that curiosity is stronger than fear. bite the bullet is the album’s deepest cut. stripped back and unsentimental, it looks straight at a relationship that did not transform into friendship or fond memory. there is only distance and the chill that follows. kane sings like someone finally saying what they have avoided for years, and it hurts in the most honest way.

as within, so without explores the way we search for ourselves in other people. the song is intoxicating and comforting, yet quietly uneasy, asking what happens when love becomes an escape instead of a mirror. interestingly titled it’s saturday and i’m high tilts into surreal satire, politics and existential dread sharing the frame with batman the bulldog. it is strange and playful, the kind of track that makes you laugh until you realise what it is really talking about.

café life sketches modern disconnection, in the albums’s most infectious groove. it’s a room full of people alone together behind screens and thoughts. the beat is vibe-first, the mood slightly distant, like watching life through glass.

ratbag joy lives in the club at 2am, where euphoria hides exhaustion. the lyrics talk about sin, denial, and escape, while the beat bounces like the best night of your life. that tension is the point. it is a mirror for a culture that dances away its pain and then wakes up with it again.

album closer afterglow is the anxiety song, the feeling of being a stranger in your own body. the verses move with quiet 1975-like vibes, then soften into a fragile kind of courage as the song names what is wrong and begins to let go of what holds it in place. it glows like light after a storm, gentle but determined.

in the end, psychedelika pt. 1 is less an album and more an era beginning, a decade of feeling poured into seventeen songs. it is vulnerable, witty, political, romantic, anxious, and hopeful, stitched together with colour and care. it sounds like someone choosing art as survival and inviting you to step inside with them.

thank u for making this the new citizen kane 🌼