Artist: Noga Erez
Title: Off the Radar
Year Of Release: 2017
Label: City Slang
Genre: Electronic, Pop, Hip-Hop, Experimental
Quality: 320 / FLAC (tracks)
Total Time: 39:26
Total Size: 105 / 262 Mb
Tracklist:
01. Balkada (3:03)
02. Dance While You Shoot (3:28)
03. Toy (2:58)
04. Instruction (0:21)
05. Pity (3:22)
06. Quiet One (0:49)
07. Worth None (4:01)
08. Global Fear (3:47)
09. Hit U (1:37)
10. Off The Radar (2:55)
11. Side Effect (0:29)
12. Muezzin (2:57)
13. Noisy (3:56)
14. A Hit Is A Hit (1:32)
15. Junior (4:07)
On her explosive new debut record Off the Radar, Erez, who grew up in Tel Aviv enmeshed in sociopolitical tumult, delivers confrontation and release through urgent dance music that dives headfirst into sonic conflict and flirts bravely with the forces of chaos and strife. The result is a provocative work that personalizes the political and uses sound, rhythm and her remarkable voice to craft visceral commentary.
The production on Off the Radar is a bold breath of fresh air. The album is replete with clean, adventurous sound mixing decisions that could easily have gotten murky and chaotic if not for the exacting precision of their implementation. Hundreds of analog sounds and synth effects are thrown out over these 15 tracks, and the placement and impact of each of them feels extremely intentional, from the spare, militaristic snare drum beat of "Hit U" to the typewriter taps on "Off the Radar." I've grown weary of what I'm perceiving as a growing "more, louder, more, louder" approach to music, and Erez and collaborator Ori Rousso pile sounds on top of sounds without the final product ever sounding cluttered or muddled, the mark of really talented production.
Meanwhile, the dark, brutal "Toys," which yields suspense and gunshots to drop you right in a contemporary horror show, and the shattering closer "Junior," which builds up to a swirl ringing chaos and reverberating echoes, reveals Erez's razor-sharp instinct for orchestrating an entire scene: wielding a beat, an effect, a vocal manipulation in order to construct a clear mood and atmosphere.
Her lyrics, as Erez told Jezebel, are typically improvised on the spot after every other element of the song has been built, and they indeed possess the power of immediacy and urgency. On tracks like "Off the Radar" and "Hit U," this results in mantras of sorts-"hear me no one sees me no one, I'm off the radar"-that can serve as repetitive vocal talismans. On "Pity," the stream of consciousness style borders on therapeutic free association, with words sharing sonic similarity and thematic significance to produce something dizzying and gutting: "Smart, sharp, witty/But oh so weary/skinny, skinny, skinny, skinny/skinny cat in a dog's land."
Erez has delivered a record filled with hits that remains at all times vital. In its cohesion and crispness, its innovative approach, and perhaps most significantly the astuteness and clarity with which it engages in the frantic, threatening, vibrant world that surrounds Erez, Off the Radar is galvanizing.
