Evitceles – Cursed Radiance

It’s tough to review music made by your friends because wanting their art to move in a direction that you consider the right one tends to make you overcritical. At the same time, listening to certain tracks, you can guess how they relate to experiences from their lives. To sum it up, by no means can you write an unbiased piece of text. So, here’s my completely subjective reading of Etien Slavchev’s latest full-length album under the Evitceles banner.

I often tend to use the word prolific when discussing Evitceles’ musical path, which I’ve been personally following since 2015. With over twenty releases, most of which are proper full-length tapes, prolific is quite an understatement. Mostly because, in my book, the word prolific usually suggests quantity and doesn’t at all hint at the constant process of self-reinvention that’s going on in the Evitceles lab.

Since we haven’t really talked about Etien Slavchev’s music here at DIY Conspiracy, the roots of his project lay in experimental electronics, with previous releases flirting with everything from ambient melancholia to lo-fi techno, deconstructed and post-club music, even trip-hop, but really, almost everything in between. Since his 2023 Opal Tapes return, Velvet Room, Evitceles has delved full-on into exploring his guitar-based music influences and has almost completely transformed the music of his project by not only adding guitars but vocals as well.

For the casual electronic music listener, that’s a huge turn; for Evitceles followers, it was a logical continuation of his musical path. Cursed Radiance is without a doubt the most uncompromising and accomplished release of the project since the 2022 full-length Accession. The signature shattered Evitceles sound is taken a step further through raw alt metal-influenced riffs or hazy shoegaze sections. Those are layered over loud acoustic drums. The usual synth work and electronic samples are still present, but are just delicately nuancing the tracks. Evitceles’ vocals are processed just enough to keep their distance but are easily decipherable. I can imagine rock music fans being as puzzled by this release as the aforementioned casual electronic listeners, and I believe that’s one of the best things about it. The other best thing is that the music on the album is as sincere and straight-forward as it can get. It pushes its author’s boundaries, it draws deep from their ever-growing pool of influences, but remains concise, powerful, and overwhelming. Especially when experienced live.

As much as I’m a sucker for Evitceles’ ambient and solely electronic works, that did peak in albums such as Naive Slumber, Нелюбов and Infinite Night so there really is no point in him repeating what he already mastered. So, I’m currently more interested in hearing a full-band release by the project because I’m fully convinced that’s the way to go, at least for now.