Okay, real talk: when was the last time a track made your brain feel like it was glitching in the best possible way? That’s exactly what happened the second I hit play on “Obsidian Acid,” the new single from Denver-based producer Xenon Thief. If you’re into braindance legends like Aphex Twin, Autechre, or Squarepusher, but you also secretly love the squelch of a Roland TB-303 on a dark warehouse floor, this one is going to live rent-free in your headphones.
Taken from his freshly-released album Gravelord’s Prayer, “Obsidian Acid” is pure sonic alchemy. The Denver-via-Memphis artist (real ones follow @xenonthief on Instagram) describes it himself as “IDM/experimental with flourishes of inspiration from Acid and Electro,” and yeah—that’s spot-on, but it still doesn’t fully prepare you for the ride. We’re talking razor-sharp breakbeats that stutter and fracture like glass, 303 lines that bubble and hiss like they’re possessed, and these eerie, almost dungeon-synth pads creeping in the background that give everything a ritualistic, late-night-in-a-ruined-cathedral vibe. It’s the kind of track that feels equally at home in a sweaty Berlin techno bunker or a candle-lit D&D session gone horribly wrong.
What I love most is how Xenon Thief refuses to stay in one lane. Born in Memphis and now cooking up madness in Denver, he’s clearly been soaking up influences from southern rap swagger, midwest industrial grit, and that weird mile-high altitude that makes everything sound a little more unhinged. The result? A sound that’s unmistakably his own—equal parts cerebral IDM puzzle box, acid techno hypnosis, and something that almost feels… occult? Like if Richard D. James and Jeff Mills decided to summon a demon in an abandoned roller rink at 4 a.m.
The production is crispy without being sterile—every glitch, every filter sweep, every warped vocal snippet feels intentional. You can tell this dude lives inside Ableton (or whatever arcane DAW he’s using) and treats sound design like black magic. And at just over five minutes, “Obsidian Acid” never overstays its welcome; it mutates, peaks, collapses, and leaves you immediately hitting replay to figure out what the hell just happened.
Look, 2025 has already been wild for left-field electronic music—between the resurgence of braindance-adjacent stuff on labels like Analogical Force and the never-ending love affair with all things acid—and Xenon Thief is sliding into that conversation like he’s been here the whole time. If you’ve been sleeping on the IDM/glitch/acid techno crossover scene, let this be your wake-up call.
Stream “Obsidian Acid” and the full Gravelord’s Prayer album everywhere now. And if you’re an independent artist yourself trying to get your weird, wonderful sounds out into the world without giving half your royalties to the machine, do yourself a favor and sign up to DistroKid. You’ll keep 100% of your earnings and right now you can grab 7% off your first year with this link: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/2058328. Trust me, your future cult following will thank you.
So, what do you think—does “Obsidian Acid” hit that sweet spot between cerebral and body-moving for you? Are we finally getting the big IDM/glitch revival we deserve in 2025? Drop your thoughts below, share this if it melted your brain too, and go follow @xenonthief before he takes over the underground completely.
