The palpable sense of tension, the drama rising right from the opening bars of “La Encantadora Furiosa,” this new one from SPKtR gets right on with the task of setting the scene right from the start – and the scene it sets seems to totter on the brink of madness. In a good way…actually in a great way. And it is not just the usual case of musicians using volume and velocity, of slow-burning sonic fires being gradually stoked. No, this is smarter, more chaotic and intense, wildly experimental, and far from the usual expectations of the modern alt-rock template. This is the sound of worlds colliding.
As an operatic voice, one that you can’t quite say if it is angelic or demonic, perhaps the voice of the titular character herself, rises out of the shadows of a dark, arabesque otherworld, it immediately finds itself rallying against pounding beats and grinding industrial riffs. And it is between this ancient, primal and pristine voice and the grinding of metal gears that the song sits, part fantasy, part futuristic, sometimes human, othertimes the sound of the machines rising up that the song richocettes unexpectedly, and by the time a gypsy violin flits through the cool, chiming pianos, only to be subsummed in glitches and growls, you have probably given up trying to work out which world this belongs in. Clearly not one we’ve experienced.
This is dramatic music, anthemic, driven even higher by the deftly positioned musical lulls, from which place the climb back to the highest crescendos is even more impressive.
Man and machine and music, planets aligning, portals between worlds opening up, it is difficult to pinpoint SPKtR on a musical map, if even such a map exists to chart their exceptional journey. Not only does the music jump across genres, geographies, and generations, worlds and wonders, reality and dreams…or even nightmares, but it also seems to connect the past with the present and perhaps even predict the future. But whose?
Website
Bandcamp
Facebook
Instagram
