Inertia by [x] (Review)

Pressing “Play” on Inertia is akin to hopping into a time machine. One that transports you back to the early-to-mid ’90s, when Projekt Records was releasing darkwave classics from the likes of Black Tape For a Blue Girl and Soulwhirlingsomewhere. Or even further back to the mid ’80s, when 4AD was releasing moodily atmospheric releases from Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil.

Now, I don’t know if [x] — the enigmatic moniker adopted by the secretive Québéc-based artist — considers herself “goth” or “darkwave” or any other similar genre. Nevertheless, her highly atmospheric music, which consists of tape loops, droning strings, and wordless vocals manipulated and stretched into vast swaths of pure melancholy sound, is certainly cut from the same grey-tinted cloth.

“Song of Songs,” for example, could easily pass as a previously unknown B-side from 1984’s It’ll End in Tears thanks to its mournful drones and [x]’s own lilting glossolalia, which approaches Lisa Gerrard’s sublimity. And given the fact that the song clocks in at over eight minutes, it has plenty of time in which to envelop the listener, thus completing its spell.

Inertia does possess a very singular mood and tone, which is both its greatest strength and potential weakness. Thanks to [x]’s uber-ethereal stylings, which seem wholly untethered from anything terrestrial, the album’s six songs can bleed together sans too many distinguishing features. That said, penultimate track “Intercession” certainly stands out thanks to darker string undercurrents as well as [x]’s sorrowful vocals, which ache and resonate with gravity and solemnity.

Of course, depending on your mood, that might be the precise sort of uninterrupted sensory experience you’re looking for. That’s often the case for me. Indeed, my first time listening to Inertia in its entirety was on a twilight walk through my neighborhood, for which it proved a sublime soundtrack.