New Okinawa Electric Girl Saya And AX: Mayhem

Consider Mayhem a test. This collaborative album finds Okinawa Electric Girl Saya teaming up with another Terminal Explosion staple, producer AX, whose best work up to this point is probably the too-many-highballs-kicked-back stagger of the Purple Juke series. Mayhem is the first of two releases coming from the pair over the next couple of months, with May’s Chastity looking like the bigger deal, with a bigger track list and guest spots from Foodman (!!) among others. Mayhem sets the stage, opening with the clanging start-stop noise of “Initiation” before AX lays down a juke-adjacent beat that Saya rips apart with noise on the suffocating “Battlefield.” This feels like a total pivot into harshness for a bit, but Saya reels it back a bit, opting for spacious unease on “Graveyard” and then letting her synth playing run wild on the jaunty “Promenade.” But even when it lifts off a bit, the pair know how to deliver punches. Get it here, or listen below.