Review: i Häxa ‘Part Three’ EP
Personally, this year has passed with a surreal sense of time; on the one hand, it seems like an age ago that Pelagic Records announced Part One of the mysterious project from singer-songwriter and visual artist Rebecca Need-Menear (of electronic alt-rock duo Anavae) and forward-thinking producer Peter Miles (Architects, Dodie, Fizz), yet here we are now with Part Three having been recently released. The final instalment is coming up fast as the fourth of the seasonal solstices they are using as the waypoints for releases looms on the horizon.
The multifaceted i Häxa have built their genre-defiant, industrial-influenced folk exploration in sections that have evolved the sound and emotion of the pieces, weaving together abstract mythologies through mediums that have included film and live performance in conveying an emotional journey.
The completed saga will be collected together in a deluxe vinyl boxset that combines all four EPs into one continuous movement that seeks to explore what makes us human, charting an existential dive into the human psyche through the shifting soundscape the pair have created, bound by the continuity of Need-Menear’s captivating vocal performances.
Part One was a folk horror tale soundtracked by harsh electronics and a claustrophobic sense of impending doom. In contrast, Part Two followed up with a tender, more organic approach that drew the nightmares of the first into the waking day. And now the latest release, Part Three, seeks to bring the spectral and physical worlds together, blending the ancient rituals of the past with the hypermodern, examining our place as beings pulled through the flotsam and jetsam of the human experience.
Army builds from a whisper, tonally continuing the uncertain, edgy mystery of Part Two. The languid vocals, breathy and low, ebb and flow with the swirling electronics talking of fabricated worlds, fantasy and things being out of reach as the sonic backdrop sounds like the sea sucking at the sands whilst a storm gathers in the distance. Industrial scrapes and drones subtly rise and fall as Rebecca ominously intones the words that conjure uncertainty and a growing sense of dread that drifts away, light and airy as it began.
Light electronics open Dryland before childlike vocal tones and echoing melodies envelop the listener and draw them in. i Häxa have an unnerving vulnerability yet an air of danger with the words and delivery seeming dreamlike, as if you have to keep leaning closer to catch a distant message. When it breaks out with full-on industrial power and dancing beats, it reminds me of Sonic Jihad-era Snake River Conspiracy with Need-Menear conjuring the same sultry presence as Tobey Torres.
the journey of this latest chapter feel simultaneously like it is drifting and yet never settling…
As stripped back and stark as some of the releases have been, when Dryland gets going, there is a majestic and powerful orchestral bombast which makes the line ‘Why don’t we talk about it?’ hit so dramatically towards the end, isolated with ringing piano as the track fades into the stopgap interlude of Oil & Inks.
The muted electronic sounds continue, mingling in the background and providing an eerie accompaniment to the multi-layered voices that sound and distort with the nagging backing before it too dissolves into the next, making the journey of this latest chapter feel simultaneously like it is drifting and yet never settling.
Destroy Everything, the final entry of Part Three, eases the listener in once more with effect heavy vocals before it introduces jittering beats and dub rhythms that groan and drone in heavy claustrophobia as they turn the screws in the second half with breakbeats and pulsing loops, the violent clashing percussion swooping and diving.
The vocals are torn between whispers and cries as they overlap having morphed throughout the EP from playful to anguished howl. The digital deconstruction and glitched-out turmoil rises to a cacophony as the final line ‘Everyone dies in the end’ brings about the fade to silence that leaves you questioning what has come before and where the duo will take you with the last piece of the puzzle.
The advantage of consistently reviewing these releases and nearing the end is that listening to all the pieces so far concurrently begins to give you a picture of how these moments of high emotion and deep intrigue work together. The latest chapter has moments that work as standalone songs, Destroy Everything feels like something that could be reworked into a full-on nightclub floor shaker, but equally, I could see Dryland (or indeed the whole collection of the four releases) under spartan lighting holding court on stage at Roadburn.
As the end nears, so does the anticipation. i Häxa have proved to be one of the more interesting assignments I have heard this year and whilst I can’t wait to hear the whole thing in November, I am beginning to hope that the next EP won’t be the end of this mesmerising project.
Label: Pelagic Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Mark Hunt-Bryden
