
Igorrr - Hallelujah [Ad Noiseam - 2012]French based performer/ producer Igorrr is one of the more creative, bizarre & deranged figures to come out of the Breakcore and Drill ‘n’ bass scenes. I first became aware of the project in 2010 with the release of Nostril which saw the Frenchman blend together Breakcore/ Drill ‘n’ bass with baroque & classic music, chugging & black metal riffing, and operatic and choral vocals. Hallelujah sees him pushing the genre mixing even further to create a manic & deranged album that darts all over the place, but also has a few moments of unspoiled lush beauty too. One of these moments of surprising beauty happens at the start of the album, as the opening track Tout Petit Moineau opens with a very beautiful mixture of elegant & ornate classic piano playing & emotional operatic solo female vocalizing. By around the two minute mark Igorrr has cleverly & carefully integrated in the cut drill ‘n’ bass elements with the soaring operatic vocals/ strings. Before latter on tempering the whole thing with a chugging emotional metallic guitar line. From here on Igorrr mergers, melts & stirs together classical & baroque elegance, with the battering/ brutal death & black metal riffs & gruff/ guttural vocals. With darts into flamenco guitar flourishers, eastern European string waltz, Persian jazz-iness and beyond….all wrapped & edged with the drill ‘n’ bass/ Breackcore elements. It’s certainly a very manic & overloading record, and while there are dips into untouched beauty these often don’t last long before Igorrr takes us on another breackcore/ drill ‘n’ bass lined multi genre Rolla-coaster ride
All told Hallelujah is another mainly exhilarating & deranged mixture of pounding & darting electronics, classic music, & battering metallic’s. With Igorrr creating a record that is a fairly unequal & odd breed of classical elegance, electronic energy, and metal guitar/ vocal brutality. Maybe the tracks here are not quite as memorable this time round, but it he makes up for it with head-spinning genre shifting flare…..you really do feel like you've being on a ride after this album finally bows out.      Roger Batty
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