M.'s record, "In Absentia", is a fusion of punk electronics and home-spun underground political and personal rock. It's youthful, intimate, and inventive and an artistic journey of cynicism and intelligence in a 13-track collection that paints a sometimes bleak world in each intentionally successive track. The music is nearly experimental in tracks like 10's, "Yr. 2001" and the spoken "A Streetcar Named Desire". The album opens with a rhythmic string bed and spoken word. The less than two minute tune moves into "Xenophobia 88" and in a musically punk tone that introduces the direction of the album - political, social, and with disillusion. Track 5, "Alien", chronicles the path of a convicted illegal immigrant who was jailed and deported. The song is spoken until the screaming perfect chorus, 'was i blind not to see that it wasn't meant for me, that it wasn't meant to be, or is it all in my mind". The artist describes being and feeling guilty of wanting the American dream. The track, along with the following, "Old Age", are two of the most personal and penetrating on the record. The dementia tracks include a stop in Spanish in track 8, "Carnaval". The tune establishes a bass groove that is painted with off-key horns and equally modal south-of-the-border vocals as the artist finds himself back 'home'. In one of the last tracks, "The Great Depression", we hear the artist inspired flavors of Waters as vocals are sent through a thin frequency on top of acoustic guitar and perculating beat, 'nothing but depression' sinks the tune into sadness. The final track, an instrumental full of tension never resolves and leaves the listener spent...and well worth the cost. Rarely are albums complete works anymore - moving with music to reveal a human odyssey. "In Absentia" is one of those rarities.