- A colleague of mine once bemoaned that LÂLKA, a woman with so many musical ideas, seemed content to do tiny releases (for a long time it was just singles) and not unleash the fullness of her powers, constructing the epic totality of what’s in her head, on record, at album length. Ha ha, time to be disappointed again, oh colleague of mine, because LÂLKA is again dodging the issue, releasing not an album but her debut mixtape.

Mixtapes are supposed to be a jumble of ideas, not cohesive enough to be an ‘album’ and LÂLKA pretty much confirms that this is where she thinks she’s at: “...for me personally, and for many other neurodivergent people too, [my] brain is hyperactive, quick to think yet chaotic”. Really though for all that this release is a machine-gun tattoo of motifs, styles and statements, it forms one very cohesive whole. Just listen to that, full-on mission statement at the beginning: “Initiating the era of romance in a precarious reality / Rebellion emanating from an ephemeral tremor of the heart / Morphing into arcane conviction /  Engram emerging / Instinct and Impulse / Heuristic reconstruction of self / The amalgamation of romance and rebellion.” It’s just about a philosophical manifesto written in PC music, hip hop and “hyperpop, J-core, Euro-dance and hardcore” and most other artists need to look at their concept albums and wonder if they scrub up, next to this mixtape.

When I said machine-gun, it really does move. Thirteen tracks are done and dusted in under half-an-hour, but the pieces fit together like a neat little jigsaw puzzle, there are no odds and ends and nothing is out of place. The intro in three slices snaps together and hypes us for the speeding hip hop of Vicious, the two minutes of which boils down to: watch out, LÂLKA bites. Hyperintense is one of the most substantial offerings so far and works the PC music angle for all it's worth as a dance banger with a sweet twist of pop. At the same time it has more depth than it probably has a right to, as LÂLKA explains her mental space and the way it affects her relationships. Sometimes it’s challenging and sometimes it’s “you and me in syzygy.”

The idea of opposing forces, a kind of yin and yang battling it out inside LÂLKA’s body and mind has always found its way into her music. I remember her repeatedly proclaiming “angel and jezebel!” on her 2021 EP, The Way Music Looks. It’s back here again, with at least as much nuance and intensity.

Oh hang on, detour: love the metal stamp sample in Hedonism, bloody great. Then it’s snap on dance bangers building and building through Obsidian and I Need U. The last of which, simply repeating the title, is quite moving. Then, in the final third, we’re into the real meat of the mixtape, with some singles you may have heard previously, finding their proper home in the world of Romance + Rebellion.

Lilith is archetypal of that dualism I was talking about: Lilith the first wife of Adam, who became a disgraced woman and -according to some Christians- turned out to be a she-demon. As the sample says: “She had it coming to her, she was too independent”. Both the original woman and an inhuman monster, that makes for some pretty opposing forces.

Levis & T-Shirts steps back from the philosophical considerations to just live some relationship stuff, pushing away the over-analysis to enjoy things. What If We Kiss To Break The Tension is another single and suddenly the jeans and t-shirts are flying across the room, putting the bang in banger. Pretty nice, but LÂLKA says that the title track and album closer is just about her favourite that she’s ever made. Who am I to disagree? A rocketing tempo really restates that hyperintensity and the dualities of romantic desire colliding with a brain in total rebellion at what’s required to live life just smash together. The harmonies are nostalgic AF and really, it’s all about desire in the end, desire to live and to love: “Come ride with me” breathes LÂLKA.

What a ride it is. LÂLKA is as uncompromising as ever and that shouldn’t even be so threatening, there’s so much pop sweetness here, even as the beats go insane. Honestly, if you find artists like Arca or Dorian Electra threatening, go and be safe somewhere else. This is the best sounding version of LÂLKA I’ve heard so far (thanks for the mastering help Aphir) and if it’s a million fragments, it makes one impressive whole. The Romance + Rebellion, I want it all.

- Chris Cobcroft.