“Caffeine,” the newest Film Noir inspired EP from Altered State Productions and acclaimed DJ Mixer, Junocomplex, is an audacious blend of jazz and ambient electronics. The EP spirals threads of espionage, drama, and an 80s retro-futuristic allure.
Slick soundscapes, sharper moves, and a hint of noir—Caffeine is the kind of jazz noir that doesn’t need to ask for permission–an anthem for the femme fatale: elegant, elusive, always several steps ahead.
Altered State Productions, a name synonymous with breathtaking cinematic commercials and bold video projects, has ventured into jazz noir with their latest recording projects, including "Caffeine." Altered States' latest EP ‘Caffeine’
Created by studio engineer JunoComplex, an iconic artist and sound technician, critically acclaimed for the EP "Lost Files," which blends ambient soundscapes, natural sounds, and audio recordings.
Caffeine acts as a thematic successor to the sound label’s most-anticipated Motion Picture Soundtrack Silicon, extending its narrative within the same universe— blending sultry saxophones with ambient electronics, all wrapped in retro-futuristic allure.
Slick Sound Design
Caffeine plays with duality— blending jazz improvisation live instruments with audio engineering synthetic textures, and groove reflection. It’s smooth but sharp; beautiful but with a bite.
Much like doom jazz or crime jazz, there’s an edge to the sound, as if you are the anti-hero. There’s a seductive danger in the mood, reminiscent of Garbage’s 1999 theme for 'The World Is Not Enough'— a potent mixture of drama, mystery, and romantic peril. The grooves pull you in, but there’s always a sense that something is just slightly off-kilter. Tracks swirl around themes of intrigue and allure, with a lingering atmosphere that wraps itself around the listener as dangerously as meeting with the Ace of Spies himself.
The sound design and post-production merge the freedom of jazz improvisation with the tight precision of electronic beats. The Yamaha CS-80 hums like the glow of a CRT monitor, setting the mood with warmth that feels nostalgic but never outdated.
Accordions swell beneath the surface, while violins drift through like memories you didn’t know you had. Saxophones slink, stretching each note like the last drag of a cigarette, while basslines move forward in slow motion, dissolving into shimmering ambient pads.
Ambient electronic music elements create an EP that serves as a perfect backdrop for the atmospheric tension of a classic espionage thriller or the drama of a cinematic romance. It’s the kind of music that seeps into your subconscious, or the ambiance of flipping through a pulp novel under dim light, catching fragments of plots: a long-lost lover, a mysterious phone call, a heist you just got away with.
The EP's Best Cinematic Songs
Each track carries a seductive tension, a potent cocktail of drama and romantic peril, where the thrill of the mystery is the only constant. The EP unfolds through five vignettes—Cornerstone, Gate 32, Argentinian Donuts, Glass Tower, and Cooked Skies—a sonic heist set within the romance of a high-stakes game.
Created by producer and musician, Junocomplex, and curated by media director Eddie Castillo, this EP is the producers work of an anti-hero, lingering in the spaces between the choices that define them.
Cornerstone
“Cornerstone” sets the tone for the EP, blending JunoComplex synthesizers with jazz-inspired saxophones that tease like a held breath, morphing traditional jazz into a fluid electronic stream. The saxophones slip in and out, intoxicating but never fully revealing, until they do in an unexpected way—noir for a new era, where trust is a gamble, and the stakes feel personal. This is jazz noir reimagined: sophisticated, elusive, and modern. Like the scent of perfume left behind, “Cornerstone” lingers in spaces between moments, inviting you to lose yourself in its ambient haze.
Gate 32
“Gate 32” is an electro-lounge track built around the sounds of a quiet terminal—a space between destinations, where being in transit feels like the only destination that exists. It’s the kind of downtempo groove that defined the late-’90s and early-2000s chill-out era, with elements carefully spaced, leaving room for each sound to breathe, making it both sophisticated and easygoing. The track flows with airy vocal samples that glide in and out, like distant announcements over airport speakers, layered atop smooth kick-snare beats that pulse steadily without urgency. Gentle rhythms create a soft, reflective mood, holding you in a space where time feels weightless, and every moment stretches just long enough to stay.
Argentinian Donuts
“Argentinian Donuts” glides through accordion jazz chords and crooked beats, channeling Algerian hip-hop with the effortless cool of a Balkan mobster. There’s a hypnotic pulse to it, like the soundtrack to a mob scene unraveling—not in frantic chaos, but with the smooth finesse of a high-speed car chase that brushes against death just enough to stay thrilling—always on the edge, but too slick to lose control.
Glass Tower
“Glass Tower” slows everything down with deep percussion and whispering high-string violins, creating a harrowing kind of comfort—like descending a corporate elevator with a busted lip, but alongside the one person you hoped to leave with. It’s a conclusionary sound, suspended in the calm before everything shifts, a quiet transition into a moment where nothing will be the same.
Cooked Skies
“Cooked Skies” drifts in as the final track, unfolding like a cinematic fever dream, with a haunting orchestral section that builds tension without ever forcing a climax, evoking the sensation of watching events in slow motion. Beneath it, a steady, looping beat pulses like the heartbeat of a world caught between reality and illusion, both grand and introspective, balancing movement and stillness. The composition carries an emotional weight—melancholic, reflective, and distant enough to feel untouchable—while the blend of classical motifs with downtempo electronic elements makes “Cooked Skies” feel timeless, a shimmering end to a journey that leaves more questions than answers.
Made for Movie Soundtracks
The five tracks—Cornerstone, Gate 32, Argentinian Donuts, Glass Tower, and Cooked Skies—unfold like a night suspended in time, where nostalgic CRT-like synths, Algerian accordions, and drifting violins blur the line between past and future, jazz and electronic.
Cornerstone opens with a synth line that swells like a held breath, an intoxicating saxophone reminiscent of Scott Hallgren, in and out, teasing but never fully revealing themselves, until it does in an unexpected way. Gate 32 captures that perfect sense of waiting—not impatient, but deliberate—feels like waiting at the terminal, where planes arrive but never quite depart. It carries the melancholy of a late-night departure—something lost, something missed, and the promise that it’s better that way.
Argentinian Donuts is the playful outlier, a strange, swirling dance between jazz chords and off-kilter beats that feel like an inside joke you’re only half in on. Glass Tower arrives next, slowing things down with violins and deep synth drones, dragging you deeper into a place where time barely seems to move. By the time Cooked Skies closes the album, the It’s a moment of stillness before the final track, Cooked Skies, drifts in—a shimmering end to a journey that leaves more questions than answers.
Beneath it all, ambient electronics tie the story together— slow but purposeful, like someone with time to kill but no intention of wasting it.
Altered State Music Production
The release of Caffeine has been released across over 50 digital platforms including Spotify and leverages UPC and ISRC codes for broad distribution and efficient royalty management.
Explore the world of Altered State Productions, from the music engineer who shares ai music news, to the sound technician with a decade of experience on record labels and sound quality. See more at https://www.alteredstateprod.com/