CITIZEN:KANE
Emanuel / Rave Modernism One
Lisboa, Portugal
CITIZEN:KANE and Jaroška have unleashed their combined sounds upon the world in their latest EP titled, ‘Emanuel / Rave Modernism One’. It is a beast of an EP, the sounds within are punchy and vibrant, decorating dim dance halls with flares of colour and splashes of tone. It's tonal and melodic throughout, with deviations towards rhythm-centric tracks. Together the pair have discovered a sound that is from another time, one from the future. Vapour lights catching chrome car windscreens, this music blares from the stereo. It takes you there, it pulls you forward in time with a bass drum and chopping synth. CITIZEN:KANE and Jaroška together, are heralds of a new techno age. ‘Emanuel / Rave Modernism One’ is hopefully the first of many new sounds the duo will curate together.
The EP is diverse, but it is in fact only two songs. CITIZEN:KANE takes the baton first, presenting ‘Emanuel’. It begins with strings, operatic flourishes which are capped and thrown to the wayside by a pulsing synth, mewling highs and a bass drum that marches on to the new dawn. The synth feels metallic, it bounces and rebounds. The bass catches up and backs off. The beat is so steady it's hypnotic, the high percussion switches things up, and it plays with tempo and rhythm, giving us high hats and snares, but the bass drum never wavers. The march is sentinel and the song revolves around it. A dance track to the core, ‘Emanuel’ catches modern vibes, turns them to 11 and sends them on to the year 3000. But ‘Emanuel’ doesn’t end there, that is only one half of the story.
The next song on the EP is a remix of CITIZEN:KANE’s ‘Emanuel’, by Jaroška. The ‘(Jaroskavibes remix)’ is faster, beefier, ominous. It takes the already gloomy ‘Emanuel’ and pushes it into the cyber-dark. The dance floor is full, the bass speeds up, and up, and up. Soon it is rolling smooth, the instrumental can’t keep up, the percussion comes in stabs and phrases, then passes in the night. If ‘Emanuel’ is the soundtrack for a dance club in Night City, then the ‘(Jaroskavibes remix)’ is playing when the corporation raids the joint. It's a heart-racing epitaph for a twilight future to come. An amazing remix and collaboration, to take the sound, understand its direction and push it even further takes a mighty amount of knowledge, creativity and skill. Thankfully both Jaroška and CITIZEN:KANE have all of those qualities by the spadeful.
Next up is Jaroška’s original (Feat. VNNNV), ‘Rave Modernism One’. The song is born of the same setting, hyper future music, but it takes a less beat-heavy approach. The song is atmospheric, it houses imagery within that showcases the harsh lights and sudden darkness that prevails within the retro-future. The percussion is complex, with a solid foundation of bass that ebbs and flows in the tide. The synth shifts from gritty to smooth, sirens to pulses. It is all around us and you will never escape its melodic harmony. ‘Rave Modernism One’ is a tune to live to, walk to, drive to. It takes movement to its core and repurposes it as neo-angst.
Now it is CITIZEN:KANE’s turn to remix. Taking ‘Rave Modernism One’ from Jaroška (Feat. VNNNV) and flipping it on its ideals. They bring the beat back, all the way to the front. Taking the percussion and turning it into drones. The bass works its magic and brings the groove back to the streets, but they do not lose their gritty flare. It breathes a breath of rhythm into the song, a rhythm that demands attention and gets it, no matter the cost.
‘Emanuel / Rave Modernism One’ is a techno-dance EP, a cyber-tech EP and a house-shoe gaze EP. It combines so much of our current musical taste, but what it does for me, is open the door. These sounds will be common place, they will create new genres, new names. It just so happens that CITIZEN:KANE & Jaroška got there before anyone else.