Vladislav Delay – Rakka

Tracklist
1. Rakka 07:25
2. Raajat 08:35
3. Rakkine 06:16
4. Raakile 03:37
5. Rampa 07:46
6. Raataja 05:56
7. Rasite 05:20

Although it features no location recordings, ’Rakka’ clearly imparts its theme thru a riveting palette of weathered textures, unyielding rhythms and the kind of reverberating, widescreen sound design that’s defined his catalogue of cult, contemporary music since the late ‘90s. While Vladislav been notably absent from release schedules in recent years – aside from working on the soundtrack to ‘The Revenant’ (2015) recording with Sly & Robbie (more of that to come) in 2018 – this new album is surely a bracing reminder of his knack for creating utterly immersive environments at the poles of ambient, dub, and noise.

Inspired by the struggle to survive in unforgiving conditions, the music patently resembles a number of styles associated with music from northerly latitudes. Elemental traces of Scandinavian black metal, Pan Sonic or Deathprod-like power electronics and Thomas Köner-esque ambient isolationism are all detectable in the album’s brutal panoramas, and evidently speak to a shared conception of the extreme arctic’s uncontrolled and uncorrupted wilds, and their frighteningly magnetic sort of push/pull on the senses.

Titled in Vladislav’s typically alliterative style, the tracks cascade in aggressive iterations of gravel-swilled rhythm and tonal attrition. The barely-harnessed might of opener, ‘Rakka’ triggers a chain reaction on events that follows into a sort of blast-beaten ambience in ‘Raajat’, and what sounds like throttled blvck metvl vocals meshed with flashcore in ‘Rakkine’, whilst ‘Rampa’ hammers home a martial noise techno tattoo, and the final couplet take this sound to its logical end-of-earth degrees with breathtaking form.

‘Rakka’ is certain to both reaffirm and upend what listeners know and love about Vladislav Delay, while firmly galvanising his sound for an unsure future.