- Music as physical and psychological relief isn't uncommon, but it's rarely as personal (or funky) as Paul Cottam's Breaking Through The Pain Barrier. In 2009, the Preston-born producer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a neurological condition that affects the central nervous system, and his latest EP was made during a particularly painful episode that left him housebound, unable to do anything except turn to his computer.
Genres such as, say, pop or blues offer more natural ways to express suffering. But little about Breaking Through The Pain Barrier gives away the circumstances of its creation, if only because Cottam's acid house and Afrocentric rhythms insist on being danced to. Clues to Cottam's state of mind may be in the frosty choral tones of "Encephalomyelitis Disseminata" (another name MS goes by), or in the squall of Space Invader synths that disrupt the meditative drift of "Breaking Through The Pain Barrier (Mantra)." Regardless of how or why it was made, Breaking Through The Pain Barrier is another excellent Cottam record.
TracklistA Breaking Through The Pain Barrier (Mantra)
B Encephalomyelitis Disseminata