Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is as if Aldous Huxley and Philip K. Dick sat down one sunny afternoon, exchanged their views on the world and the inevitability of a dystopian nightmare and their perception on what life would be like if Humanity didn’t pull back from the brink of self-congratulation and its destructive self-harm; and from the collective pre-eminence that followed the flow and serious banter spawned an idea that would only come into being when Omrade were ready to unleash musical Film Noir on to the world with the tremendous Edari.
As Edari plays out its dance, its nightmare foxtrot catching the heels of those who thrust themselves out of the fog and swirling mist that surrounds the neon blinking lights, the thought of a future with no self control fills the mind. It expands several horizons and watches with a seeming amount of great pleasure as the mist is burned away, leaving trailing in its wake a sense of strangled reason; Edari’s purpose is much more distinct and principled.
The songs batter at the door of the listener’s sensibilities and throw down a warning which has to be heeded, that there truly is more of this to come and in which the guest vocals, supplied by Guillaume Bideau and Asphodel on the tracks Luxurious Agony and Satellite and Narrow respectively, ask much of the listener and the pay off the extremes between there to guest vocalists and Christophe Denhez is worth the money shelled out for the album in itself.
Tracks such as Friendly Herpes, the gut busting Ottaa Sen, the aforementioned Luxurious Agony and Satellite and Narrow and Aben Dor all conjure up the pressure felt between revelling in melancholy and looking out for the blaze of sunshine, that singular force that brushes the damp and dank dark out from the mind.
It is Film Noir holding hands with dystopia, the catalyst of invention when new worlds collide and give birth to a whole new subsection and culture of profound, it is the mask not just slipping but being torn off and shredded before everybody’s eyes and it is truly a magical scene to behold. The rationale of existence that breathes between two states of mind and Omrade supply them both with ease and expertise.
Thrilling and expansive, melancholy does not stand a chance.
Ian D. Hall