Dark Music Review: Esoterika
Review by Casey Douglass
Esoterika is the
most recent album from Humanfobia, a dark experimental music project
from Chile. It consists of two members: Mist Spectra and Sábila
Orbe, and is a project inspired by the supernatural, life after death
and ghostly happenings. The music could fall into any number of
categories, from dark ambient to witch house, but it’s dark, which
is the main thing I tend to look for.
On Esoterika,
Mist Spectra provides the haunting feminine vocals, her phasing
shimmering words at times clear and bright, at others like a whisper
from the grave, depending on the track. Sadly, I don’t speak
Spanish, so I couldn’t understand what was being said, but the
track titles gave enough of a hint for me to get the feel of what was
happening.
This leads me to the first track that I clicked with: Gato Negro (black cat). A bouncy electronic tone sets a rhythm, and is soon joined by the sharp meow of a cat. It’s all a little discordant, which is part of the charm. The cat sounds range from the normal to the quite severe, and at times, the other sounds in the track seem to mimic the cat. By the end, I thoroughly had the cat’s meow on my brain, and came away really liking the track.
Next up is Phantasmal
Doppelg▲nger. A fast beat is joined by a ghostly wavering voice,
while a quieter rhythm sits in the background, carrying the track
along. Beeps and bursts of electronic noise join things, a little
like a modem handshake at a laser show, and the voice, when it fades
and reappears, shimmers. The overall image this track created in my
mind was what it would be like for a ghost or creature to come
through an old CRT monitor, only to stare the user in the eyes as
their double.
Ʃso₸erika is next, a punchy track with a
mixture of both masculine and feminine vocals, along with various
electronic tones and beats. The vocals seem to stutter in and out,
phasing with the pulsing notes. It almost sounded a little like a
chip-tune song to me at around the midpoint, something from an old
NES video game corrupted by dark influences maybe? A fun track
though, either way.
MΛgic Spells of Doom is the final track I wanted
to talk about individually. Fuzzy electro noises and vocals from Mist
Spectra echo and squelch into a soundscape that's ripe with buzzing
activity. There is also a pleasing muffled effect, like the digitized
sounds are happening underwater. Later there are what could be the
sounds of a radio sweeping through frequencies, maybe the
spell-caster of the title tapping into different levels of existence?
All of the tracks on Esoterika are haunting
in their own way, the various electronic sounds, samples and tones
creating a dark digital space in which technology and the
supernatural just might be meeting and bashing out a few obscene
offspring. I’m not used to listening to the kind of electronic beats that Esoterika provides, but the
dark samples and tone held this dark ambient fan’s interest
throughout. What’s more, Esoterika is a free download from
the Humanfobia Bandcamp page. You can visit that page by clicking
here if you’d like to find out more. You might also like to check
out Phantasmal Doppelg▲nger below:
Album Title:
Esoterika
Album Artist:
Humanfobia
Released: 8 Oct
2018
