Five brief slices of time. Like walking through a gallery, room to room, each space’s contents a sudden, chaotic-yet-coherent blurt, a demanding but untranslated message, waiting for a key…
The brevity works. Short, intense, not a moment wasted – carving your attention into new shapes. Each momentary fraction leaves you grasping for more… even if ‘more’ could easily be surfeit.
Miniatures, intricate, fully-formed, each a different perspective:
r v safe is Brutalist architecture – all the materials are on display, no fancy surface lies, just slabs and swathes of tortured violin dissolving into a bubbling sound-stew – like constructed field recordings of a festival in a warzone, on market day, during a religious parade.
In through the marvellous opposites torrential vibes pour down interspersed with the buzz and chatter of oblique electronic signals sent by nothing human.
disturbing a circle is a nerve- and attention-jangling electronicised collage. There’s a Zappa-esque playfulness – a rapidly revolving kaleidoscope of sound that leaves you grasping for purchase, clinging as the signal fades, threatening to leave you stranded between stations.
Guitars smoulder and bubble in v never met … nascent rhythms strain towards the light, momentarily felt before their grip loosens, while to the rear of the stage, the Fates (or Muses, who can tell the difference, really?) softly moan, unheard.
The title track is… industrial… if that’s the word for the beating of an electrified anvil mixed with almost nostalgic vocals, a reminiscent poetry for a past escaped. The fire roars while violins and voices sputter and fade… to a moment of static hiss…
Five brief moments. All under three minutes in length. Does that make this a punk EP?
r v safe
through the marvellous opposites
disturbing a circle
v never met
classified
(12:42)
Composed, performed and produced by Alen Ilijić.
“classified” is available from Alen Ilijić’s Bandcamp page.