Lara Sarkissian - “DISRUPTION”
Reviewed by Chano

Very cool debut EP from Armenian-American co-founder of Club Chai. Incorporates Armenian, west asian and middle-eastern sounds/scales/rhythms with lots of intense electronic vibes. Sarkissian identifies as a sound designer, composer, and audio-visual artist so there’s an experimental vibe to this while still being pretty dancey and groovy at times. Very cool stuff that could mix in with a variety of the genres you play on your show! Jam!

Favorites: 1, 3, 4
FCCs: None! (At least, none in English. I can’t understand the Armenian lyrics ;)
RIYL: Club Chai, glitchy electronic dance stuff, industrial, cosmic vibrations, etc.

1. “A Ceremony (for Arax)” - 4:24 - Upbeat. Epic synth bass phases in and out while glitchy vocals (not in English - maybe in Armenian? I’m gonna ask my mom because she’s learning) get the vibe set up. Heavy drums and thick sludgy bass wobbles in. The vibe is stompy until about the 3min mark when some nice water sounds take center stage and then the drums come back and a nice melody from some type of Armenian instrument (?) comes in. Very sick percussion.
2. “Greeted by Tir (Տիր)” - 4:24 - Meditative, but intense. Femme of center sounding vocal sample. Heavy kick drum. Cool panning of synths - bleeps and bloops sort of. Kind of more midtempo. Cool acoustic sounding instruments being plucked and played add texture to the electronic sounds.
3. “Gnum Գնում (Going)” ft. Margenrot - 5:00 - Uptempo and trippy! This one starts off feeling more poppy with a nice upbeat bass sound. But then soon the percussion sounds come in and sound offbeat and/or polyrhythmic (I’m not technical enough to tell) in a really cool way. More femme of center vocal samples sort of making vocalic sounds and getting panned. Synth chirps that sound like digital birds. Very sick track.
4. “the Wave’s recountal” - 3:13 - very pretty synth with tremolo like effect and then heavy drums banging before starting and stopping a few times. Kind of sounds like what I imagine playing tag/hide and seek in a nice forest would sound like - the running and hiding part part specifically. Cool machine gun sounding drums.
5. “Tell Me, Where Do The Butterflies Live” - 5:55 - ethereal synth gives it a less dancey vibe than the other tracks but equally good. Twinkley sounds and water comes in along with some vocal samples that are hard to make out but that fit in nicely all together. No drums on this one. Very cosmic and intense. Feels like I’m listening to some binaural beats. Wraps up with very pretty flute melody and digital water sounds.