The North Coast of Ireland can breed a particular type of person. The air is heavier, weighed down by salt and isolation. Many of its main settlements are bordered on one side by miles of remote landscape, and the sublime empty of the Atlantic on the other. The air is heavier, weighed down by the salt and wind, and to the disrespectful traveller, it can be unforgiving. Often if you look out on a grey day, where the water joins the horizon seamlessly, you would be forgiven for thinking you were on the very edge of the earth. To exist here, and indeed thrive, is to defy normality and convention, to shun the comfortable for the conflicting and it only makes sense that the music to emerge from such a place reflects this.
Enter Syeva Bondarenko - part Irishman, part Russian, part Nordic god of mischief - better known by his stage name blxxd, is an act that resides solely on the fringe of what is expected of independent NI musicians. A former member of cult heroes Little Arcadia, the guitarist has branched out his sound on his debut 'lxve', a record that embodies the spirit of electronic, metal and other ‘outsider’ genres in its total rejection of the expected. With a keen ear for the foreign and a fearlessness to capture it, blxxd’s experimental endeavours are beautiful and yet also grotesque, with a challenging spirit that encourages conflict and exploration above all else.
For examples of this, look no further than second track ‘Sanguis’ a track that both adopts and disregards its influences; moody guitar overlays and sodden electronica mirror the methods of North coast legends And So I Watch You From Afar and dance music giants The Prodigy respectively, but the bellicose nature of their intertwined sound suggests a vibrant spirit of his own, one in which blxxd is all too happy to employ in order to get a rise out of the listener. But rather than resent, you respect him for it - you earn your enjoyment here, and as such every drop you procure tastes that much sweeter.
Bondarenko continues to guide genres on a collision course, combining clapping beats, swirling colours, dynamic electronic waves and frighteningly in-your-face distortion with verbose ease.
A general lack of lyricism forces the narrative of the record to intertwine itself with experimentation. Whether he’s weaving rich tapestries (the airy, electro-shimmer of ‘ilyjk’), finger painting on cave walls (the aural air raid of ‘ngl') or dabbling in photo-realism (the colloid groove of ‘shimmer’), the world-building nature of Bondarenko is an aspect of this album that is not to be underrated. He pulls the best from his supporting cast of ZOOL-affiliates (Sex Hardcore and singers from both Alpha Twin and Pascalwillnotsurvivethis), using the rare human interactions as enhancements rather than distractions. Indeed, the infrequent instances of vocals are used to emphasise the vast spaces of 'lxve', acting as plosive STOP signs throughout the album that force you to take stock before you submerge yourself. The iridescent soar of the opening quartet of songs is shattered by the cataclysmic vibes of ‘ngl’ which is in turn pacified by the twirling pop punk of ‘tangerine.’ The understanding of the ebb and flow of the albums mood swings, and how they are played off each other in battle, is perhaps the only aspect of the recording that can oppose the impressive nature of its diverse sound.
This state of constant conflict is what ultimately fuels the album, with a sense of ‘survival of the fittest’ having you in a state of hypersensitivity at all times. One of the more varied and adversarial releases of the year, 'lxve' will not so much as take you out of your comfort zone sit will ‘re-arrange’ it, mafia-style. Equal parts reassuring and terrifying, blxxd brings you sounds from the edge of the earth and civilization as you know it, it's up to you to ride it till the end.