Belaxis Supreme
Get It While It's Hott. Brash is Beethoven. Belaxis is Buil.
(Self-released)
This disc is another exciting incursion by visual artists into the arena of audio art. Now, while it might seem a little heavy-handed to refer to this as a genre ("audio art"), I only do so momentarily to discern between what we plebs see as musicians and artists. From here on out, though, the difference ends, because this is at the end of the day: music.
Recently we explored a couple of MP3's (here and here) by local artist David Brieske who's audio work lends itself beautifully to matters of ambience. And here we have local artist/dancer/choreographer/photographer Belaxis presenting aggressive, noisy, experimental electronica. Her background is important; I see reverse choreography at work throughout this album. It's kinda like she's got the music mapped out on the performance level and created it to fit as such. Some of you might know Belaxis as a long time collaborator of Dino Felipe from his Finesse & Runway days.
Opener "Alienated" does a solid job with its cryptic singing and abrasive clangs. It's a little like post-Tappi Tíkarrass and pre-KUKL Björk crossed with El Cuco or La Llorona with an alarmist disco bent. This is followed by the ambitious 14-minute ambient exodus of "Red Dying Hood," a paranoid epic replete with the organic and inviting sounds of carefree birds chirping into the wind. "Baritone Laugh" and "Time Trees" are the benign and shorter pieces that setup the middle part of the record's far more experimental exercises.
"Swimming for Death" and "B Flat" are especially industrial in execution and lull the listener into a danceable mood eventually shattered by "Cuckoo, Brash is Beethoven." The closer is "Sexually Political Dicktatorship" and it introduces elements of the everyday while attempting to shed unseen skin.
While this album doesn't exactly shatter the mold, it does take cadence and rhythm to some interesting places with that aforementioned reverse choreography as well as some prankish touches of pop.
