Earoh is a producer from Los Angeles who first came to our attention back in 2015, when he released a beat tape on Hot Record Societe called This Is Water. While he’s followed that up with beat tapes, EPs, and singles, the one thing we haven’t gotten out of him is a full-length album. That changes now with the release of Ambien Moon.

Ambien Moon has interesting origins, recorded over the span of three weeks as Earoh traveled across New Zealand’s South Island, even incorporating field recordings along the way. A backstory like this would be enough for many producers, but Earoh also had some additional artistic ambitions in terms of the thoughts and emotions he wanted to convey with Ambien Moon. This is an album about mental health, and the difficulties of treating or not treating symptoms with prescription medication. It’s not an album that is decidedly for or against medication but is rather interested in the messiness and frustrations of dealing with mental health issues – how you might feel calmer on medication, but disconnected, or how you might not be able to focus or control your emotions when off the medication. Earoh communicates this by giving us an album that is just as musically complex as the subject matter he wants to have a conversation about. At one moment, it could be some calm downtempo beats, but the next minute might feature some psychedelic backwards loops, and another moment might feature some late night dance music. It’s part of a spectrum, and it’s all in conversation with each other, reflecting different states of mind. This is all interesting on its own, but what makes the album really stand up is the care that Earoh takes as a producer, to develop each song, switching up percussion patterns, letting the melody grow, and building all of the layers in between. The only minor criticism I have is that the lone featured emcee, Dior Worthy, who comes in on “Proper Burial,” doesn’t quite meet the level that Earoh is working one, instead falling back on some clichés as he rhymes.

Ambien Moon is an ambitious debut album, but Earoh took the time to do it right. It’s an album that has plenty of great compelling beats, but it’s really when you put them all together and listen to the album as a whole that you realize everything that Earoh is saying with his music, which is not easy to do as an instrumental artist. I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.