Kirara achieves greatness on latest album "4"
Kirara
4
Poclanos, 2021.
9.9
Over the course of 2021, Seoul-based electronic producer Kirara released a series of sequentially titled EPs; 4-3, 4-2, and 4-1. These releases teased that Kirara was up to something special. And at the tail end of the year, she unleashed 4, and it did not disappoint.
Let's get this out there right now; Kirara's 4 is incredible. An astonishing, vital listen. Everything about this album beams with an insistence, a class and character that demands to be heard. It's an ear-bashing electro album with an absolute chasm of soul, depth, and vibrancy. Many, myself included, thought that topping 2016's moves would be difficult, but with 2018's Sarah, Kirara did it. On 4, she has done it again, somehow finding another level to take her brand of electronic music.
Kirara skillfully does what is so rarely done in this genre; traverses the line between slick and raw. The album hits hard and has its abrasive moments but is done with such a sense of melody and songpersonship that it never descends into jarring.
Guided by Kirara's masterful musical intuition, this album hops, flips, cuts, and oozes with sinister precision. 4 jumps from musical idea to musical idea with laser-guided focus, with repeated motifs ensuring that the whole thing feels like one cohesive journey. Take a track like Pulling of the Stars. At nine and a half minutes, you'd be forgiven for expecting a slog. And yet, it never remains one thing long enough for fatigue to set in. It builds and recedes, swoops and surprises with an irresistible poise.
Kirara doesn't shy away from her musical inspirations either. She incorporates a veritable encyclopedia of house music history through this album. But rather than offer them up as an influence or some nostalgic reference point, Kirara occupies them; she takes them by force and makes them work for her.
There's so much creativity here, and 4 feels like Kirara has finally found the exact right amount of space she needs to spread herself out artistically. It's full of experimental flair, but none of it feels showy or superfluous but is all fused together neatly, and everything sounds purposeful and vital. The labyrinthian tempo changes of HRT and the glittery, garage-infused traditionalism of album highlight Condemnation are both great examples of this.
Much of Kirara's work has focused on a certain kind of conflict, the one between her raw, pulsating, almost aggressive type of electronic music and between her emotionally-driven pop sensibilities. On 4, the balance has been attained. Neither the hard nor the soft have to give way for the other to thrive. In fact, there is no conflict here at all, but rather two opposing sides working in complete, fervent harmony.
On 4, Kirara has achieved an extraordinary thing; an uncompromising set of floor-filling bangers that are full of heart and craft. An absolute triumph.
For more information on Kirara, follow her here.
