When you think of hypnosis, you often think of spinning and/or swirling psychedelic visual effects or even a pendulum swinging back and forth. Whatever it looks like to you, the commonality is your full attention is directed towards an object in motion. You have to work a little to follow and become one with said motion itself. Once you do, all your other senses are switched off and your subconscious barriers ultimately fall. In a similar manner, music can very much be hypnotic in itself, at the very least so metaphorically but that depends entirely on the listener. For music to truly drop those mental barriers, you need to truly invest all your effort and focus into every element comprising the sounds right in front of you and that is no easy feat, and only then can you truly be lost in the music. There is one factor that is fundamentally responsible for the hypnotic nature of music and that is groove; a rhythm that manifests itself in every crease and fold of our bodies. Hence, radiant.
Sometimes all it takes is a simple, yet powerful rhythm to easily worm its way into your ears and hijack your brain and voila, you’re gone. As nice as it is to have these massively dense atmospheres that completely wash over you in every which way, you don’t always need all that to become fully engrossed in the music. Sometimes less is more and when it comes to rhythm, that is the true essence of entrancing music. All this talk of the hypnotic nature of music and rhythm brings us to why we are here today, and that is for an Everything Is Noise exclusive premiere of the new single from radiant, “Aspettami”. Yes, you guessed it, this track is a sugarcoat-free, straightforward mesmerizing cascade of sound.
The French-Italian radiant are an experimental dark noise trio that masterfully boil down the mystifying power of music down to its basic components and fully capitalizes on it to craft some petrifying tunes. Since forming back in 2019, they are set to release their second EP titled ORA on October 21st via Jarane. ORA was cleverly designed to play off both visual and sonic contrasts and the way these sensations intersect with one another. One little interesting tidbit is the real album art for this EP is hidden behind a 3D filter. Only when you see the art through a particular lens (a 3D lens in this case…) can you see the hidden depth and nuance that gives the artwork so much life. Now if only I could find my Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over DVD case with the 3D glasses to truly appreciate the art myself; someday I will. Much like the visual artwork, the sonic elements heard on ORA only reveal themselves with full transparency once you fully surrender yourself to the noise.
“Aspettami” artfully kicks off with nothing but a simple drum groove, one that slithers its way deep into your mortal core without any resistance. It is a sneaky way to familiarize the listener in advance with the integral rhythm that will persist throughout the song in various forms. Not even seconds in and and you’re already fully drawn in with minimal effort from the radiant. This causes you to latch onto said rhythm and let it guide you while the rest of the band takes the song for a sinister twist. That familiar rhythm is what grounds you while the dissonant guitar leads and unsettling vocals lash away at you from all angles as the energy of the song builds and builds. Like the song, I won’t mince my words and I’ll repeat again, “Aspettami” is a simple yet masterfully effective foray into what noise rock can offer.
With a song that pulls you in as much as “Aspettami” does, you’ll likely want to hear more and that is what you would call a job well done from the band. ORA drops on October 21 via Jarane, so swing by the socials for radiant (Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp) to stay in the loop about any additional news to come. Be sure to check out their self-titled debut EP while you’re waiting until then!
Artist photos by Brian Ravaux
