Bruxa
VictimEyez

Bruxa is a brand-new presence in the American underground electronic scene. "VictimEyez" is their first full-length album following the 2011 EP, "Eye On Everybody".

Hailing from Portland, Bruxa is a trio devoted to a new genre, or supposedly so, called Witchstep. They themselves and their record label, Mishka, which oversaw the free download release of the album, describe the band's offerings with this word, asserting that the trio's roots represent an important and futuristic offshoot of Witch House, a branch of traditional House music that originated in the early 2000s also in the United States, and combined it with slower and heavier sounds derived from other genres such as (or maybe), Chopped'n'Screwed, Shoegaze, and Drone Music, creating a musical genre with a grave and distorted song form.

This is where Bruxa emerges, reclaiming these sounds and enriching them with Dubstep elements, rhythms derived from the darker rap of artists like Dälek and Death Grips, but above all, dark sounds from Industrial and Dark Wave.

VictimEyez swims right in the middle of this claustrophobic and incandescent chaos, revealing itself as a true black gem of negative, very introverted, and occult electronics. In the ten tracks of the album, there’s no hint of light. Electric and sharp synthesizer textures, industrial sampling, and use of the sequencer à la Front Line Assembly, metallic drum machine with full-bodied sounds, often with strong reverbs combined with vaguely tribal percussion, sometimes with a scattered Amen Break often set against real Techno or Dubstep sounds. But not that colorful Dubstep which is overused in the Harlem Shake craze or various viral YouTube sensations, but the kind that at most would sound like Roy Batty from Blade Runner, furious in moments of leisure. Adding to the music's convulsive and lethal nature is the voice of singer Bianca Radd, shamanic and rebelliously acid at the same time, which I perceive as a sort of medley between the solemn Diamanda Galas and the fresh and clean, but not so much, Alice Glass of Crystal Castles.

Mothersnapper opens the album, vaguely reminding me of the darker parentheses of Nine Inch Nails. Next is V?!, sharp as a chainsaw and paced like an M16. Paperweight Pt. 1 & 2 are the sonic blow of the album. Especially the first, which combines an initial Dubstep rhythm with a breakdown of distorted basses to the lead singer's twisted prayers. The central part of the album is the darkest and most refined, with references to the seminal Industrial of Current 93 (Roll Sharp) and the more metallic one, made of percussion rains, of KMFDM and Pitchshifter (Human Minds, Trill Witch, Quebrar Cabeca).

The album ends with the "softest" track, Abortos Para Todos, highlighted especially by Bianca Radd’s whispered and melancholic performance, once again, which, in the cybernetic atmosphere dissolving beneath her voice, places the coda on a very good album, original and courageous for the musical proposal, positioning Bruxa as one of the most promising bands within the darker and experimental vein of American electronic music.