Review Summary: I'll have what she's having.
I’ve spent several weeks’ time indulging myself in Margaret Chardiet’s new album
Contact.
Concise, ever abrasive, strikingly deadly.
Contact is without a doubt Chardiet’s greatest attempt at screaming her goddamn heart out and making it as uncomfortable (or annoying) as she can possibly make it.
Contact signals a change in Chardiet’s sound – leaving the rough-edged chaos of
Abandon and the body horror nightmare
Bestial Burden for the approach of non-stop drone, gripping vocals (or whatever you really want to call Chardiet’s yelps and howls) and a more expanded soundscape thanks to the increased usage of electronics and a heavy focus on production.
Contact relies on these new aspects and that’s just about it – there’s a concept hidden within the industrial destruction Chardiet enables you to hear, but the “looking at humanity in an objective way” idea that Chardiet employs here falls flat. The message is lightweight, and despite Chardiet’s skilled lyricism, it’s how she sells her concept that allows for it to fail in its purpose.
Contact has the makings of a typical Pharmakon album – droning passages and visceral noise, Chardiet potentially shredding her vocal cords once and for all, a vague message that you’re hardly able to decipher thanks to several elements of her music masking over the important details – all neatly organized in an overwhelming thirty minute record that aims high but misses the mark. I've spent several weeks indulging myself in Margaret Chardiet's new album
Contact and all I know is I want whatever the hell she's on.
