London-based musician aya's work, especially her second album 'hexed!', dives deeply into the chaotic experience of addiction. While 'im hole' explored themes of self as a void, 'hexed!' amplifies this through a raw sound inspired by nu-metal and hardcore. The intensely visceral nature of the album evokes a real sense of being overwhelmed by substances. The cover art and sounds create an aesthetic that is unsettling, mirroring the turmoil of addiction and its chaotic, purgatorial reality that aya personally navigates through her music.
The album was, in part, about doing ketamine - often, and with a transcendental zeal. There is romance to be found within a world that has become an endless after-hours flophouse.
With sounds inspired by her childhood predilection for nu-metal and hardcore, then translated through synthetic instruments she designed and built herself, aya tells a different story about the chaos-purgatory spiral of addiction.
On first listen, I nearly had a nervous breakdown. The record channels the experience of being off your head on booze and drugs.
Over industrial textures, gummy basslines, and brittle breakbeats, aya pitched her voice to sound like an evil witch, alternately whispering and howling incantations.
Collection
[
|
...
]