Dennis

This album has been added to 5 public lists:

• 

  Vortex's Album of the Year List '24

  Tom

  Sega Bodega's 2021 album Romeo was one of my favourite albums to come out of that year, with its icy production and sudden drops into harshness. With Dennis, Sega takes that same ice and recontextualises it into a cold dreamworld.

  The album follows Salvador's alter ego, Dennis, into a disturbed slumber, with caustic fizzes of drum and synth following in his wake. Adulter8 sets the scene perfectly; Sega's vocals are barely distinguishable, submerged in a haze. Only a single word is visible amidst the clouds; "Seduce". And seduce it does, with bass notes colliding into each other as if in perpetual motion, a singular synth zigzagging its way between frequencies.

  The concept of voice as texture, expressing concepts rather than thoughts, shines on Kepko in particular. It's very hard to tell what Salvador is actually saying; tripping over the words at breakneck speed, he tries to "Press up on the stem, release the violets/Huff you up til you're just a colour I can't see" again and again. You'd be forgiven for thinking this was meaningless, but that's kind of the point; the concept of intention is what drives the record forward. Combined with Sega's best production yet; carbonated synthwork, bass that cracks and warps into abstract percussion, and vocals massaged into something barely human. This is something more ambitous than genre labels could describe.

  Much like a dream, these tracks both flow perfectly and take you to entirely new places. Take Set Me Free, I'm an Animal; it's one of the more lucid tracks on the album, with production hinting at organic elements streaming with machine-like smoothness into industrial spasms and throbbing drums. Yet this track fits perfectly next to Deer Teeth, one of the best songs Salvador's ever made, with its cold-sweat-esque leaning forward and backwards into throbbing kicks that propel it in perpetuity. There's an honest-to-god club track buried in here too, with the absolute best example of a kickass synth pulling all the weight. It feels euphoric and feverish yet never fully resolves. After all, we're still in a coma.

  Sega's production can feel a little too good at times; on albums like Shygirl's NYMPH, his sound felt slightly too polished for the kind of dirty club-bass Shy excels at. But here he proves that all that polish was for a reason. Who else could make something like Tears & Sighs with its halting crumbles of sound and deep, dark vocals? It really does feel otherworldly. So many times on this record, you just have to sit back and marvel at how confident every track sounds. There's nary a stutter here, even in Humiliation Doesn't Leave a Mark, the most expansive track. It's immense and dramatic, and the featured verse from Maya Alkhateri (one half of their band Kiss Facility) really cements Salvador's place as one of the best producers of this decade.

  Dennis is a unanimous victory, proof that Sega Bodega can execute any concept he puts his mind to. It's far too compelling to ever sleep on.

• 

  z0z4

  jzfski 💭

  🇮🇪

  Electronic, Alternative R&B, Art Pop, Glitch Pop, Art Pop, UK Bass, Neoperreo, IDM

• 

  005 may 2024

  pari

  05/05/24 ❤︎

• 

  004 april 2024

  pari

  04/26/24 ✌︎

• 

  AOTY 2024

  Raven