Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel once said about surrealism is that “The surrealists’ aim was not to establish a glorious place for themselves in the annals of art and literature, but to change the world, to transform life itself”. And that’s what artists want to do with their work is take their chances by breaking the rules, throwing the book into the fire, and create their own unnatural combinations or juxtapositions.
For singer-songwriter and visual artist Rebecca Need-Menear (Anavae), i Häxa is a ritual aspect of seeing the world collapse in front of the listeners’ eye. There’s the separation between monotony of modernity from rites and rituals that can be formed for many, many centuries of who we are, why we are here, and how do we belong in this parallel universe Rebecca has created.
The first three parts were released as 12” EPs going back from February, May, and August of this year. Now in the fourth and final chapter of the series, Rebecca and producer Peter Miles (Architects, Dodie, Fizz) are heading towards this attacking momentum, getting everything down and center, revealing all of the chaos, disorderly situations, and the nightmare that unfolds us in front of our very eyes.
Each of these four chapters that the duo has brought together, is now an imaginative movie in front of our very eyes with their self-titled, full-length debut. And if you think they’re going to pull a big, massive Hollywood blockbuster, guess again. i Häxa is as creative as creative gets.
There are moments from the first part of the post-apocalyptic scenery where they go into this pulsed-dubbing, electronica atmosphere which speak of Radiohead’s OK Computer and Kid A when it comes to a shifting scenery, straight out of David Lynch’s Eraserhead that comes to mind.
Rebecca’s vocals behind the ‘Sapling’ slithers down the stairs with minor piano chords, looping vocalisation, droning effects, and the insanity that comes with it. But in the second part, with its acoustic guitar setting up the lyrical boundary behind the ‘Eight Eyes’, you feel as if you’re in Rebecca’s dream, revealing all of the drum parts and ascending keyboards taking us into the hallway of mirror with an unexpected revelation, you are your own worst enemy.
‘We Three’ has this spoken dialog Rebecca details the fears of powers ranging with an electro drum loop and falling towards your own fate with hypnotic results while the smooth turned jazzy classical string sections of ‘The Well’ puts her in this smoky, night club in Paris around the 1950s, walking down the areas of France as it changes into a gorgeous 3-strip technicolor as she goes into the dance of Death with a soulful arrangement that speaks of the complicated life of Nina Simone.
Part three is where everything goes into a visceral, deep, and bone-shaking orientation. When you hear a track like ‘Dryland’ you feel Rebecca’s presence, coming on stage, taking the styles of Radiohead’s ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ and bursting through the floodgates with a volcanic eruption that comes out of the blue.
It’ll make you jump at first, because she wants to make sure everything is in topsy-turvy with its intensive backbeat Peter has unleashed. i Häxa is not just filled with surprises, but twists and turns when they get everything ready for the fourth and final part of the story.
Part four opens up the curtains one last time with a synthesised terror for the ‘Vessel’ to erupt, tackling themes of insanity, paranoia, and never being cured and being locked up in the loony bin, for a very long time. The spoken dialog and droning effects are played through a back-warding punch, as if you hear the patients, laughing hysterically and crying throughout the entire evening.
When I think of the ‘Blue Angel’ I felt some tugs of Bowie’s Outside and Earthling album that comes to mind. Of course, there’s nods to Aphex Twin and Massive Attack, but the stories of Detective Nathan Adler, come into these dangerous situations.
Rebecca imagines herself, being inside the detective’s office, revealing some of the cases he has left behind for her to finished where he’d started. There are elements of ‘Little Wonder’, ‘I’m Deranged’, and ‘A Small Plot of Land’ that comes to mind with some jazzier affections to the beat, but once the electronic beats hit, all hell breaks loose for the dance of death to continue once more on ‘Infernum’.
Batshit crazy momentum, Rebecca is in Björk’s territory, channeling themes from her Homogenic years, expanding more of the ‘Hunter’ with heavier string sections and tidal waving drum patterns. The sun comes out the dark, grey skies, revealing its true form of a better tomorrow with the ‘Circle’ in full.
You can imagine Rebecca, fighting back tears singing through the rubble and walking into the forest with mournful strings and piano arrangements, knowing that her character will never be the same and will start a new beginning, a new chapter, and a new life that waits for her.
This album may not be for the faint of heart. It maybe challenging, but what a tightrope that Rebecca and Peter have envisioned their listeners to walk upon something that is dangerous and right to the bone.
