“Eel Sparkles” is the seventh release by Human Potential - the solo project of Andrew Becker; an award-winning filmmaker and former drummer for both Dischord Records’ band, Medications, and Brooklyn provocateurs, Screens.

In spring of 2025, Becker crammed a Tascam 488 and a Mark Shippy signature balalaika into his vintage Givenchy bindle and set sail for the rugged steppes of Inner Mongolia. There, he hoped to track down and solicit the tutelage of legendary baritone, Ariunbataar Ganbaatar, and thus, transmogrify the foundational gain of his sonic effluvium.

But, just days into the journey, the vessel he was aboard was hijacked by a revolutionary group led by the wayward son of Larry Drake. For days the crew and passengers were forced to watch 70mm prints of “Dr. Giggles” while consuming only fermented horse milk and Teddy Grahams dipped in ham salad. Eventually, after deciding another medium of entertainment was needed, Drake Jr. conscripted Becker into performing, not only live improvised “Giggles” scores, but rigorous performances during daily meals.

After the hostages were liberated by surviving members of the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior incident, Becker found himself back in his Los Angeles kutcha, armed with an array of new ideas that he would engineer into, “Eel Sparkles”.

The record pulls strategically from the pop song canon, while delving further into the sonic experimentation stippled throughout his previous works. “Sun-E Corporation Teenage Anthem” rides the glam tram to Barry White’s atrium, while “Do You Remember Albert?” surfs a pungent wave of distorted marimba into the iniquitous den of some Spirit Airlines glowstickerie. “Practice Songs For The Unloved” engenders sloppy, poppy porridge to trickle into the narrowest of earholes while “The Sightseer” sprinkles skronk soot over a punky funk thrust. Throughout, Becker’s lyrics weave tales of murderous movie stars, ghost arsonists, death starved relatives, Hardy Fox, Tsetse Flies and unicorns.

Ultimately, “Eel Sparkles” fills that long glaring void nestled between Phil Niblock’s “Nothing to Look at Just a Record” and J Rock’s “Streetwize”; a beguiling kaleidoscopic concoction designed to enhance fundamental sensations and effectuate sophisticated elation. Not unlike being washed in the cool, shallow wake of the Euphrates, “Eel Sparkles” clears out your every corpuscle with an unsullied sonic transfusion, creating a menagerie of sudden and ecstatic rebirth.

“Eel Sparkles” will be released on Becker’s own, What Delicate Recordings, on March 6th, 2025.