Incirinna - Trace

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Incirinna’s “Trace” is a journey into the shadow side of the human soul, reflecting bereavement, exclusion and emptiness tinged with faint moments of hope despite the ever-growing thickness of the night that spreads outward for the music. The album combines the fascinating lyrics with vocal performances that emphasize the album’s gut-wrenching emotional journey and analogue synths that produce an atmosphere which integrates deadly force with desolation.

A complex, layered emotional experience is central to “Trace." Konstantinos Londos’ uncompromising lyrics strip back everything to surgically excise feelings and examine them while vocals that are sometimes devoid of all emotion and at others create a field of hurt and lack. An atmosphere dense with agony and the disappointment of existence permeates the music. In the end, we are left with an impression of broken hearts and damaged souls.

All of the different synth tones and instruments used by Yiorgos Katsanos are another integral part of the mood and depth of “Trace.” His deft ability to bring different textures and sounds together allows the vocals and the lyrics to shine while still adding another component which deepens and increases the emotional ferocity of the album. When one also adds the melodic writing that emphasizes the harsh, jagged sensations that fills every ounce of the music, the end result is devastatingly beautiful.

My Favourite Tracks Analyzed

“Mutate” begins with a harsh, uncomfortable synth moving over a boiling rhythmic pulse as the unsettling sounds are joined by Irini Tiniakou's haunted voice as an echoing note pattern vibrates with impersonal, synthetic feelings.

The vocals are full of shards and frozen sentiment, delivered in a slick and shadowy performance while the underlayer forms an unending pulsation. Emptiness and the edges of misery grab me as Irini Tiniakou delivers her coldly precise performance.

Strings vibrate, painting a warm palette, behind technologically dispassionate notes as the tumbling foundation keeps fulminating. Irini Tiniakou’s chanting deepens the emotional impact. The song charges and its feelings are palpable in each word. Strings sob as the forceful sounds around them shove hard and Irini Tiniakou closes with her desolate voice.

Waiting for the night and the "diversion of the trace," our narrator advises the song's subject to "get ready for the vamp, the stage, the other face." Adding that she owns the night, she says "I cease and I begin, I have no future past" adding that she's painting on her skin.

"I stamp on the vulgar borders" igniting a wardrobe war and as the storyteller beholds the other person’s "faceless orders" she's glowing down to her depths. Unchained on the dance floor, she says it's "my glory, your deception." She concludes by pointing out that "tonight's my grand conception, tonight my face is real. "

Undulating sounds ripple into openness with a soft hiss backing them up as “Find” grows hypnotically as gentler sounds slip before the shifting bassline pours out slicing power. Irini Tiniakou's vocals are bereft while the computerized-sounding synth melody weaves a more caressing tone.

Rhythmic pulsation supports the vocals that dig deep, as Irini Tiniakou’s voice hurts and trembles and the never-ending underlayer presses on while the vocalist sighs with mournful feeling and the dancing, futuristic sounding synth repeats a figure full of refulgence in contrast to the sorrow embodied by the background.

The way in which Irini Tiniakou stabs at my heart keeps me tightly drawn to the music. Beneath the emotive expression, the drum beat snaps as a galactically twirling note pattern joins flying tones while the background exudes agony and hope in equal measure.

Starting out by saying that "it takes time” and it's only now that you can find the time, our storyteller goes on to say that it takes a crime for someone to grow because they find the crime." It takes a heart, when you're in pain you find the heart.” When something starts to claim your brain, you press start. She goes on to say, "it takes a word to meet your fear, you find the word." As the song concludes, she says, "it seems absurd, there's no one here but you've been heard.”

“She Is In The Dream” generates a looming shadow from the angular foundation as a piercing note pattern bursts like a ghostly beam before Irini Tiniakou's voice hovers with broken hearted sensation, conveying the fear and strangeness of this dream to me. The synth has a luminescent elegance that contrasts with the heavy darkness below the powerful and engaging vocals.

Both singers add to the sensations of contemplation and the unsettled nature of this nightmarish vision. The synth creates a surprisingly tender contrast to the portent of the shuddering rhythm. Slowly twirling notes drift into openness as the singers bring together their voices to transmit all of the discomfort captured in the lyrics while the unstoppable low end drives.

Mournful sensations permeate Irini Tiniakou's performance, balanced with the deeper tones of the secondary singer while intertwining notes join together and the sweeping synthglides in the distance. Springy notes move with dense percussion and bass before the song closes out.

Saying “she's in the dream,” the storyteller speaks of scorn and absence, describing "the concrete stream I never cross." She feels ashamed as the other person's "close-set eyes decree the blame.” While they stare at her she is "curled up in fear” as she experiences their "last judgment beam."

As the phrase, "she is in the dream" is repeated, our narrator says "she paints her breast, she mocks the scream, unsound in void." She says " the nail is through, the pain is true, the blood, the seam, she is in the dream." To conclude, the narrator points out that, "I wake up dead, I need the dread, the nail is through, the pain is true. "

Ticking like a mad clock with clashing metallic gears, “Region” starts as threatening underpinnings join a mysteriously levitating synth with a pleasing roughness that transmits a melody both enigmatic and beautiful. Irini Tiniakou's voice trembles with a softer feeling than previous tracks, reaching out with vulnerability and touching my heart as she does so.

Notes with a brushing delicacy contrast with the ominous low end while the vocals encapsulate strength and surreality with clear expression. A cascade of jeweled notes casts an iridescent glow as the guiding underlayer moves forward while Irini Tiniakou emphasizes all of the strangeness of the dream about which she sings.

Digital-sounding tones trickle with feathery brightness while the hurt and yearning is fully evident in the vocal performance. The main melody drifts out and Irini Tiniakou transfers every ounce of feeling before silence falls.

Motes of light dance on a beam in a camera shutter’s eye and our storyteller asks the song’s subject where they've been. She goes on to say that "a dollhouse waits with open gates forever." Speaking of "the soft remains, the sour floor, the carpet plains, the wooden shore," she adds that the crime isn't sealed and time hasn't healed anything.

"A scattered train, a book of tales, a wagon lain along the rails" are part of the narrator's vision along with "the bear who knew was always true and told me." She describes the song's subject as they walk through "a soundless sphere" and a no man's land "that placed your fear." She concludes: "I'll be with you, I'll die for you, just hold me."

“Diver” is immediately active with speeding percussion before bass slices and an elevated note pattern drifts in repeated ghostly lines with a feeling of disconnection. As the hypnotizing notes flicker, Irini Tiniakou creates a feeling of bereavement while higher sounds cast a spectral gleam and the underlayer drives on with concentrated power.

The way in which Irini Tiniakou's voice is emotional yet full of desolation only increases the ache within the lyrics. As the trance-inducing pulsation shifts and effulgence contrasts with Irini Tiniakou's void of feeling.

Continual razor-edged motion joins the floating vocals that roam out, Irini Tiniakou using her voice to transmit the mingled rage and deprivation that roil within the music. In the performance, a maze of loss and the impression of being trapped pours out before the song stops.

The narrator holds the bar and focuses her gaze before closing her "purple eyelids" and hiding her eyes in a daze. "I'll count up till the train car once more comes to a halt " as it makes endless stops and she adds that "I am way far, I travel in a fault. "

"The hidden currents taze the wheels, the tracks scream house-trained" as the rails obey under our storyteller’s feet and "the course is preordained." She "carved a map along my skin" that takes her back to the beginning and "marks the way to where I've been but never points to the heart.”

"Words of whim inflame the craze, the rise of random screening" as the track’s will runs amok and distance doesn't have a meaning. The narrator talks about the way in which " my wired heartbeat peaks and pounds, pulsates through elbow gloves "and the city hounds her beyond its borders as "the rats release the doves."

Loud voices clamor and her "earphones howl in rage" as our storyteller speaks of the crowd as sharks in a "hoarded frenzy" while she is "a diver in a cage." As "rats release the doves" she feels her pulse to draw in and her wrists are "in nails" while she suspends a crimson cross. Her fingers are "wrapped in metal scrap" and her black lips are "bleeding gloss."

Jagged edges rake as “Presence” vibrates with growing gloom while the heaviness is joined by reverberant percussion and the urgent voice of the singer whispers before the underpinnings charge and waves of blinding phosphorescence spill out above the under layers.

Irini Tiniakou has a weary feeling in her vocals while the unvarying beat and the sharpness below it create balance while the synth exudes brilliance that moves with string-like tones, creating an orchestral sensation. Irini Tiniakou captures me in her web of hurting feeling and emptiness while the cascading radiance shifts and nervous sounds cry out.

As the rhythm accelerates, all of the fragmented edges are joined by a Theremin that cries out in spectral lines while Irini Tiniakou speaks with a dark weight as the entire song moves relentlessly forward. The otherworldly sheen of the music glistens as the vocals shiver with pain before the music closes out.

Seeing the detail and the frame, our narrator notices "the presence’s defiant counterclaim" which is innocent but vile. She says the song's subject walks along with "borrowed eyes" as the dice rolls and doubt is proven wrong.

While the song's subject never sees and is in denial, "you live the dream, it's in your file." As wheels cry out and buildings scream, they "drown the voice of the buried stream." The sky breathes in "our stale choice" and as the blinds reveal, the guards celebrate.

"But now you see her, you're alone" with those borrowed eyes and a "sold out song." There are a thousand people and she is the one but in those same thousand people "now there's none." As beauty provides forgiveness and time is being defeated, there's an "irreverent gift, the ultimate feat."

Pointing out that "the eyes you see, the eyes are her own" our storyteller says that the eyes which the song's subject borrowed have "pierced to the bone." The song concludes as she says " at last you are blind, at last you are free, confront the real and you may see."

“Sometimes” combines a yearning melody with terrifying force surging below, creating a contrast as Yiorgos Katsanos’ voice captures a piercing thorn of emotion while the song shakes in a tide of pain and the melody churns as Irini Tiniakou adds her own layers of staggering anguish.

Desperation permeates the vocal performance as the sharp rattle of drums joins the ragged bass, ripping at my soul. The melody broadcasts emptiness and tear-stained impressions as a metallic tonal pattern cries out with a sharp needle of expression while the background sobs and the underlayers cut cleanly. A heavy weight fills the dolorous vocals as a glistening synth spills out agonized feelings and silence falls.

In a flood of emotions, the storyteller moves between wanting to cry, feeling like he's dying, "like kissing the sky, like a helpless child. " At other times, he craves air and stifles a despairing cry. In conclusion, he says "sometimes I feel like going nowhere, sometimes I feel like nothing is there."

An enigmatic ripple joins heavy drumbeats which explode into violent acceleration and “ΚΡΥΦΟ (Hidden)” swells with chanted vocals as an interlocking synth emphasizes rushing and tension. A vibration runs through frigid tones while Irini Tiniakou chants and the foundation continues to speed.

The guitar reverberates in a pattern with horrifying power as the low end batters. Despite the whispering tones, rage fills the vocals, growing in ferocity as the song crescendos. Robotized notes give things a cold feeling as the guitar ramps up with spinning wildness and drops away while Irini Tiniakou repeats phrases as if in ritualistic practice and the song ends on erupting feelings.

Our narrator is talking about herself and not hiding but she’s "hidden from myself, who I am." She can say how she is and she's "the one who keeps saying again." She adds that we and the others are the same and speaks about herself in order to hide.

Talking about voices that she hasn't heard yet, the storyteller describes "children, the sandy beach and the soil." If there's another sea, she says "may they never see it." She adds " the breaths, may they never cease, oh God! "

"I fall silent for myself and I hide" as our narrator regrets the times that she didn't say that she knew. She suffers because of that and continues, "let it dawn, let it drown the first." She concludes by mentioning "the scream, the dawn of the traitor. "

Conclusion

“Trace” carries me through bereft feelings and the faint possibility of hope. As I am transported through its layered emotional landscapes, I’m captivated by the uncompromising honesty of its lyrics, the vulnerability of its vocals and its desolate atmosphere.