Having spent his career operating as a musical nomad, Sam Eastgate has always been an unpredictable figure in the electronic landscape under his solo moniker LA PRIEST.
“I’m not trying to weird people out or be freaky for the sake of it” Eastgate said in 2015, “I’m trying to turn people on to something that can be real for them, if they can accept its unusual form.”
From his indie-rave exploits with LATE OF THE PIER to his eccentric LA PRIEST trilogy ‘Inji’, ‘Gene’ and ‘Fase Luna’, after the Latin-folk detour of the latter, Eastgate has returned to machines for his fourth album ‘Into The Sky’. In fact, for writing purposes, he re-purchased a vintage Korg 800 DV, the very synth that defined his solo debut ‘Inji’.
Photo by Storm Mortimer
Co-written, co-produced, and mixed with his old friend Alex Ridha, better known as techno titan BOYS NOIZE, Eastgate has applied restriction to his sound palette for ‘Into The Sky’, relying on a few key machines like his custom-built Gene III drum machine and Polygene polysynth. This roots revisiting has sparred Eastgate’s trippier instincts against Ridha’s dynamic dance-friendly production with interesting results.
Beginning with the cosmic ballad ‘Rayon’, this is nervous melancholic combination of vocals and electronics. Both buzzier and deeper, ‘No Other’ and ‘Voices’ are no less nervous in their emotive resonance. However exuding more of a dance flavour while retaining Eastgate’s signature vocal tension, ‘Breathe’ is a highlight and comparatively bouncy in its gloomy electro-disco. ‘Ever No’ heads back to the cosmic ballad realm albeit with more blips and blops. Continuing with the heavy synth bass mood, ‘Can’t Get Enough’ is more minimal , allowing Eastgate to hit the high notes before unleashing an extended, expressive synthesizer solo.
‘Sailor’ adopts a speedier tempo despite being a ballad and its random piano stabs, metallic textures and voice samples for something quite unusual and if that wasn’t enough, the ‘Into The Sky’ title track erupts and shifting the album’s pace into a short sharp burst of avant-garde rave energy. Onto the final straight, ‘Time’ is a kind of psych-pop ERASURE before the trippy sequenced closer ‘Message’ wraps up the journey in a warm hypnotic glow.
With ‘Into The Sky’, there is a coherent sound base and Eastgate has offered a set of pulsing electronic songs about love and liberation; “For a long time, I wanted to make stuff for your mind.” said Eastgate, “This one is more for the mind and the body”. By imposing strict machine limitations and collaborating with BOYZ NOISE, LA PRIEST has crafted some of the most accessible and danceable music of his career.
‘Into The Sky’ is released on 28th August 2026 by Domino Recordings
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Text by Chi Ming Lai
25th August 2026
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