Android Lust
Devour, Rise and Take Flight
(Projekt)

A solitary woman named Shikhee is Android Lust. She writes all the songs, does all the programming, feels all the pain. This is why Sam Rosenthal signed her to Projekt. She is comparable to Trent Reznor in those regards. Mr. Reznor is not the original solo studio member musician (Prince? The The? Hello?). Here’s where they differ: Trent Reznor’s last album was called With Teeth, while Shikhee actually uses hers. Her teeth tear at the fabric of being. Her teeth expose the world underneath the surface of flesh and it’s not pretty.

Android Lust has little to do with lust as it is about the consequences realized too late. That puts her on par with her Projekt peers, but she’s always considered herself an industrial artist. What kind though? Not EBM. Not synthpop. Not noise either. Shikhee/Android Lust is unto itself.

The music on her new album Devour, Rise and Take Flight is a bit slower paced than her last outings. The songs are stripped bare, which brings out her secret weapon: her voice. It’s not operatic or soulful, and it's not its range or prowess that attracts us. It is Shikhee’s ability to allow us into her tortured world. In other words, she sounds like she’s honestly crying. It’s the rawest emotions I’ve ever heard anyone sing since Michael Gira of the Swans. Take “Memory Game” where at the end of the track she repeats the line “here for another day” several times. In the background a series of shrieks develop, growing in volume and intensity as if to be “here for another day” has become a prison sentence. How about “you think you have the right/ because you fucked me a couple of times/ to tell me what to do” from “The Body”. The album is full of vocal and lyrical epiphanies.

I really would like to know what has happened in her life to create such a volatile and lethal album. Not in a tabloid way but in a sense of needing to understand. But then I’m sure it’s in her music. Something is below the surface. I can’t wait for the next album to peek deeper into this fascinating soul

-Thom


» Buy Devour, Rise and Take Flight Now!