Vegyn is back with his second full length album following 2019’s Only Diamonds Cut Diamonds. Joe Thornalley’s story is well known by now, having cut his teeth with the likes of James Blake, Frank Ocean, and JPEGMAFIA, but the years since his debut have pushed that highly regarded and unique production into myriad exciting directions. The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions crystallises his evolutions of late, both as an inspired label head of PLZ Make It Ruins (George Riley, John Glacier, Headache, Memo Boy etc) as well as a forward thinking artist.

Dark as the title may seem, there’s plenty of vibrant joy to be found on this record. ‘A Dream Goes On Forever’ opens with PLZ protégé John Glacier urging us to remember the good things in life as synths explode in rainbow fountains. It’s a downtempo prayer with imperative chunky drum loops and reversed piano chords that instantly tap into Vegyn’s pastel coloured emotional vein, further eked out with wisping psych guitars, placid rhodes chords, and UK bass in bubblegum flavours.

If anything, The Road To Hell… reveals that Vegyn’s sound was driven by colour and texture all along. Two step rhythms and breaks are dressed in lustre, sharply ticking trap beats and stoic raps on ‘In The Front’ are lifted into the clouds by velvet strings, while each track is permeated by a golden hued haze. ‘The Path Less Travelled’ is awash in vapour, with woozy pianos and synth sparkles swinging on pendulums as they detune, and ‘Last Night I Dreamt I Was Alone’ is gauzy leftfield goodness with effervescent, unpredictable rhythms splicing and chopping over ringtone-like synths. ‘Halo Flip’ is a clear highlight: amidst playful radio bumpers, Lauren Auder muses on cycling through different lives over jubilant synths and strings gushing with an inviting warmth.

Vegyn truly steps things up with his second full length album, a record full of triumphant explorations of various tangents of the myriad subgenre of electronic music. The producer who continues to keep us on our toes and faultlessly supplies the goods.