Some music you feel, even before it hits your ears. aya's hexed! is like a big block of rusted steel; hitting, constantly pounding your chest.
aya is originally from Huddersfield, England: a small town that I imagine has a local pub with retirees sipping a pint, waiting for the inevitable Sunday bingo. But peace and tranquility is far from the listening experience of hexed!. It’s an escape from mundanity, not a quiet tip-toe but a burn everything in your way; till the ground itself is barren, pitch black. Sure you can relax — it’ll just have to be amongst dissonant screams and metallic scratches.
hexed! is a cold shower: startling, but refreshing too. Despite its gritty and aggressive textures, it's hypnotizing. Guttural sounds slither in and out, alongside stretched out synths and SOPHIE-esque metallic drums. Even the slower parts of the album, that don’t necessarily sonically hammer you, feel like an eerie soundtrack to a horror movie. ‘The Petard is my Hosier’ feels like a track off an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, where a leviathan stares at you from afar, and you don’t know whether to run or accept your fate. ‘peach’ utters witch-like chants over a layer of disgruntled drones, enchanting you to face this ugly reality.
That’s hexed!: an album that turns a mouthful of worms into a nice Sunday roast.
Words by Rafael Enriquez