7/10

There's a hazy, unstable quality to 'and in my mind, i’m everyone CLOUD' that suits its central question: how much of ourselves can ever truly exist inside somebody else? Across seven tracks, South Carolina artist and producer Xeno Ray JNB moves through ambient textures, experimental hip-hop, lo-fi production and psychedelic sound design while exploring identity, isolation, grief, faith and the desire to understand lives beyond his own.

The title, inspired in part by The Smashing Pumpkins' 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness', is an important note to take, as "And in my mind, I’m everyone" becomes a way into the EP's larger emotional territory, and the wish to connect so deeply that the boundary between self and other begins to dissolve entirely.

As it plays, the project drifts between different psychological states. Some moments feel intimate and grounded, while others disorienting, as though the production itself is testing how stable identity can remain when memory, grief and dissociation begin to overlap.

The highlight 'Oh Virginia! Bless U Virginia!' stands out as the emotional centrepiece. Longer and more cinematic in approach, the track uses spoken-word elements and featured vocals from Trinitysarts to move directly into grief and personal memory.

While at the other end of the EP, 'You make it right, it's alright' turns towards acceptance, gradually opening into a more meditative reflection on connection and identity, suggesting that understanding doesn't require everything to be fully explained.

Created primarily on a laptop in a home recording environment, the EP was written, produced, arranged, recorded, mixed and mastered by Xeno Ray JNB. Samples and additional contributions are woven into the project, but the overall creative language remains distinctly his own.

Following the more conceptual social concerns of 'Mono Modern', this EP feels far more exposed. The world is still complicated, but Xeno turns the focus inward; defining who he is than questioning where the self ends, and whether meaningful connection begins somewhere beyond that line.