Adarcah Ianqu's or dark leaves the listener no choice but to move from the gray and into the crunching brightness of industrial gears. It calls upon transformation and not turning back: its compositions derived from coercion, cleansing, hope and fear.
For this review, I find it suitable to separate Ianqu's selections into three clusters, based on their moods and subtexts, even though their arranged assessments will be juxtaposed: sometimes light or depending on one's audio view, dark.
In the case of "chlorine", "cu", "red-blooded" and "laboratory", the tracks reference the stirring sticks of forbidden formulas, whether fabricated or organic. They also reference lightning rods, bubbling beakers and energized electrodes: Frankenstein/Jekyll-Hyde/Invisible Man stuff. However, as much as their analytical industrialization repels, they stay identifiable, like Churchill's paraphrased blood, sweat and tears.
"Saw you", "bullying area", the clustered "002 - 2021 mix a 001" and "002 - 2021 mix a 001 b" are as factory-bizarre, but more refined as they spiral from their whirlwind centers. They're a lot like spotlights beamed on exposed, dirty deeds: embarrassments wracked with recognition, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but in the end, all essential.
For the final set, "begird" and "the bell sound of south", we gain the chance to shave the aforementioned's edges, though these examples still deliver great sting. On this basis, they are high-flying, even if blanketed in sandpaper grit, invoking flight while anchored, cruel yet kind for their subtle, steely intent.
The mechanisms of or dark are intricate but free-flowing enough to make this one of Ianqu's most expressive productions, presenting a theme that's theme-less and so full of meaningfulness that it becomes a blessing and a curse within the same aesthetic cycle.
Listen to Ianqu's contrasting darkness at
https://adarcahiancu.bandcamp.com/album/or-dark
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