New Okinawa Electric Girl Saya X AX: “Chastity”

Noise can be escape, but it can also be confining. Early on, it feels like the latest from Okinawa Electric Girl Saya and AX might go too hard on the intense stuff. “Red Noise” and “Vacuum” lean into feedback, creating these blasts that would fit at home in any “Japanoise” show going down at an underground club. But it also feels like a lot, and a whole album of this onslaught might be better as an idea than a listen. Saya, however, mixes in plenty of other ideas alongside the harshness. She creates steely beats bordering on the industrial on the physical “Saya Goes To The City” while she conjures up mirage EDM for the sweltering “Heat Haze.”

The biggest revelation here is how well Saya works with others. CRZKNY stops by to add some ominous beats to the noise on the apocalyptic “Love Machine,” while Foodman lays down an on-brand off-kilter beat for her to sing over on “O.K.N.W.” The highlight comes in collaboration with Soejima Takuma, the team creating a glassy and breathy electronic number late that is a total departure from the noise around it. Yet all this variety only makes those passages of aggression feel so much more liberating. Get it here, or listen below.