This tape doesn’t play — it seeps.
How to Melt a Wax Planet unfolds like a neon mirage, a one-hour drift through trip hop fog, dusty beats, and late-night hallucinations. Candlewax (aka Leeds-based producer Jordan Benson) builds these tracks with the patience of someone who understands that atmosphere is the main instrument. Nothing rushes. Everything glows.
From the opening sprawl of The Great Cactus Trip to the slow burn of Music by Candlelight and the closing title track’s cosmic unravel, the album feels like wandering an abandoned city at 3am with a head full of static and a pocket full of broken memories. Influences from DJ Shadow, Blockhead, Herbaliser and the Dust Brothers echo through the haze, but Candlewax bends them into something deeply personal and strangely comforting.
The cassette release — only ten copies (8 left!), recycled shells, dubbed at normal speed — is pure artifact culture. The fact that 100% of profits go to Mind only deepens the beauty of the gesture. This is a ritual object for anyone still in love with machines, loops, and the slow magic of tape.
Let it melt you.
