Review Summary: Madness is brilliance.
Hallelujah is a melting pot. Much like
Unexpect merge unrelated instruments together into a sound all their own, so has Igorrr done with his 2012 offering. Only this is with classical and baroque elements. And industrial with a bit of power noise. And metal.
"Tout Petit Moineau" enters meekly with a subdued piano melody, adding in Italian operatic female vocals, courtesy of Laure Le Prunenec, as the piece slowly develops. At the height of the her voice's power in rush electronic elements, glitching and clicking around and under the beauty of the singers voice. Everything from slight frequency bombs, transpose stretch effects, noise gates, and gabber like beats can be heard here, and though it comes off as gimmicky on paper one absolutely needs to hear the combination to know just how effective it is. Rather than focus on these additions Igorrr throws another skillfully aimed wrench in the works, as Prunenec suddenly is screaming with the ferocity that only a female can produce in the Italian language. The vocals switch back and forth in a call/respond manner, all the while being followed by electronics walking the tightrope between cacophony and structural brilliance. The voices die, and single violin takes up their banner before it too passes away.
Charm and discord can be found throughout
Hallelujah's 38 minute length. "Damage Wig" introduces guitar riffage,
Dir En Grey-esque screams, and blast beats ala
Behemoth while "Absolute Psalm" creates a nightmarish metal track out of innocent French vocals with black metal distortion and a tad of lounge jazz thrown in for good measure. Quite frankly there is never a dull moment on
Hallelujah, and for some this will be a deciding factor; to many it will wear on the ears and seem contrived, while to others the result of this audio mayhem will be something they never knew they were looking for but absolutely have to have. Even the interlude "Toothpaste" is filled with discord, recalling moments of a freaky independent art film with its delayed and distorted sound seemingly coming through a long tube as a voice finally calls out "All right!"
Hallelujah is something that will escape most music fans radar, which is a shame because a concept such as this deserves a chance at a slot in their music folders. With a short running length those who find themselves captivated by Igorrr's soundscape will never feel overwhelmed or bored, and if anything will be left wanting more as ending track "Infinite Loop" comes to a close (as ironic as that may seem). From baroque to dubstep the atmosphere found within Igorrr's latest effort is something only a madman could contrive, and it needs to be heard to be believed.
