By Mitchell Hillman

For the last six years, there has been only one, one man band in the world that matters and that's been I Am Hologram. Richard Nihil aka I Am Hologram, has performed throughout the Phoenix music scene under a multitude of monikers. He has performed, recorded or collaborated with acts such as Sound Bite House, Insomnia, You And I Were Enemies, Working Class Weirdo, Philip Kills Dick, Hotrock Supajoint, Comptalo and is also the lead guitarist of Ghost Cat Attack. I Am Hologram has established himself as one of the most challenging, prolific and dynamic musical artists around. On record and stage Nihil turns himself inside out through apocalyptic sets that will make your hair stand up on the back of your neck the entire time and leave your soul permanently changed when he was done. His set could run an hour or it could end in eighteen minutes with the death of his guitar and the impact would be the same. It is hard to believe it is only one man playing the entire set with his hands, his feet and a voice that sounded a bit like an Angel trapped in Hell.

I Am Hologram first came to public attention and critical acclaim playing around Phoenix and upon release of The Anomaly in 2014, which featured local cult favorite single "Osiris (Remind Us)". He was the quintessential "muso artist", a musician who was largely followed and heralded by other musicians. In the years that followed his debut, his reputation as a live force to be reckoned with grew. In 2016, I Am Hologram ambitiously released six records, three EPs and three full length albums, many of which were featured in the local media's best of the year lists when all was said and done. Each release had its own unique identity, quintessential songs and outstanding singles. The middle child of those albums Idiot Savant featured "Derelict Starchild" a song that will carry into the next phase of Nihil's evolution in We Are Hologram. 2017 and 2018 followed with live albums and additional EPs for I Am Hologram. Not All Of Us Are Human was recorded with Ari Leopold at Lava Lake Studio and will be the final album, the bookend if you will for the extensive I Am Hologram catalog.

In 2017 Nihil also released four wildly experimental records as Philip Kills Dick, bringing a new dimension to his sound and his overall catalog, as well as finally inviting others to participate in the recordings. This year, in addition to recording the final album for I Am Hologram and the first album for We Are Hologram, he's released handful of singles as Working Class Weirdo--yet another completely different musical personality from anything else he's done before. This year has also seen the release of Ghost Cat Attack's live album recorded in 2018, and the start of a full length studio album from them, due out late 2019/early 2020. Richard Nihil is a one man renaissance show who operates well beyond the confines of time and space.

Not All Of Us Are Human is a departure point for I Am Hologram, which seems to be a poetic touch to a planned grand finale. Though recorded at Lava Lake Studios, there is no Studio trickery, this is I Am Hologram doing everything through the instruments he has on hand or feet as it were, combining his voice, his guitar, and his enormous pedal board. It is possibly his most accessible work yet and in comparison to the rest of his catalog, it's quite beautiful.

After the spacey noise intro of "Frequency 972", "Murmur" is an almost hopeful, straight ahead rock paean to a relationship lost to time. It was the first single released from the album last May and it's easy to understand why. "The Architect" is a brief transcendental dreamscape that acts like a bridge to the bulk of the album. While it's too long for a single, "Once I Was" wouldn't seem out of place on a Queens of the Stone Age album honestly, and here it's one of the strongest tracks of the album. The hypnotic second single from the album "Where the Light Creeps In" follows with a near classic rock feel and a sound that seems destined to appear in a film somewhere, complete with a David Gilmour-esque guitar line, when Nihil sings "I'm lost in space," you feel it.

The title track is quite literally the centerpiece of the album, a sprawling, near seven minute epic it entrances the brain and infects the soul. Either internally psychedelic or the soundtrack for an outer space horror show, the song is a transportational instrumental that is both primal and futuristic at once. "Paul Is Dead" is a dedication to the late, great master of misinformation and sensationalism Paul Horner, using a comedy track from the man himself, Nihil creates a wild guitar backing track reminiscent of musical experiments in the spoken word realm from the 1990s. The effect is amazing and unsettling at once. We return to I Am Hologram's version of rock'n'roll with "Null Void" and it feels like you can breath again for the first time in quite a while. This should seriously be considered for a single.

"I Beg To Differ" kicks off with some backmasked fun that sounds like a magical incantation and the entire song could well be a mystical invocation for the way it leaves the listener. It appears at this point that the second side of this album is filled with shorter, more straightforward and less demanding songs. Another spacey, way station track, "Silentium Na Ah" leads to the end of the album in much the same way "The Architect" led us to the middle and just as seamlessly. One of the most exciting tracks, rhythmically speaking, is "The Ghost Who Breathed" featuring a manic drum machine backbone that moves you into the tune with the ghost of turn of the century Nine Inch Nails hanging about the aural landscape, propelling you toward the finale like a psychonaut approaching timewave zero. That finale is the most recent single from the album, "God Speed John Glenn." It's sure to be a fan favorite and a song that gets the most mileage for I Am Hologram, not only for mentioning the world famous astronaut, but for the haunting beauty of the spaced out track. As much a meditation on space as it is on the first man to orbit the Earth, as much as the sound of a soul separating from a physical form. It is the triumphant culmination of the entire album and a powerful conclusion to the six year odyssey of I Am Hologram.

Contact info:
Name: Richard Nihil
Artist: I Am Hologram
Location: Sunnyslope, Arizona, United States
Email: WhoIsTheHologram@Gmail.Com

www.iamhologram.com
iamhologram.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/i_am_hologram
www.instagram.com/iamhologram/
whoisthehologram.tumblr.com
open.spotify.com/artist/1YNkpHCYdltdNjOGaVoRBP
www.youtube.com/channel/UCjJARpuxqEAZS7qTfzMLq0A
soundcloud.com/iam_hologram
www.mixcloud.com/iamhologram/