WhenSwedish duo SHXCXCHCXSH release a new album, you should lose your assumptions and be open to a new experience. The project never settles for anything usual or expected. Sure, their quirky name is bound to remain seared into your mind, but their sound is just as memorable. Be prepared, a lack of vowels has never sounded better.
SHXCXCHCXSH - SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs (Avian, 2016)
Their latest album, SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs, out June 6th on Shifted’s imprint, Avian, plunges into a murky industrial-techno abyss. Like a fall down the rabbit hole, but less surreal and more conceptual. The intensity grows incrementally with each track and every consonant added to the song title. While offering every now and then a moment to pause and catch one’s breath, there’s a certain soothing beauty in the cacophony created. As with their previous releases, the throbbing percussions and relentless noise are actually stimulating and uplifting. They occasionally let you delve in a psychedelic haze for a while, only to pick you up again with repetitive beats and intense synths which throw you back into a swirl of chaos and madness.
SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs won’t give you the typical clubby four to the floor tracks which put you in a trance like state for a short while, but you easily forget them the next day. This album invites you to reassess your aesthetic values, and transform intangible distorted realms into harmonious realities.
-Marie Bungau
@mariebungau