‘Obelisque Queen’ is the third release from Yavenirie Amok, with the clear aim of awakening our consciousness. This London-based quartet, fronted by vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Zuza Tehanu, is completed by Asia (whistles, backing vocals), Tom (bass), and Jan (drums/production). Polish-born but forged in London after two decades on the British scene, they’re a self-sufficient creative unit who write, produce and craft every visual element themselves.
Their sound is deliberately unclassifiable: psychedelic and gothic rock intertwined with Eastern European folk, grunge rawness, prog complexity and primal, earth-bound experimentation.
The track opens like a folk-rock sermon anchored by a hypnotic riff in the purest spirit of The Stooges’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, before surrendering to psychedelic sonorities that evoke Grace Slick unleashing her full force with Jefferson Airplane, complete with distorted guitars that invite you to cross a threshold. Through insistent ostinatos and dense layers, ‘Obelisque Queen’ maintains an austere, ritual atmosphere that challenges the listener rather than pleasing them. The rhythm, steady and restrained, functions as a ceremonial foundation upon which sonic layers build without haste. Every sound occupies its exact place, stripped of superfluous ornamentation.
‘Obelisque Queen’ is a primal cry summoning people to awaken and rebel against the collapse of modern society; a society that dresses reality in beautiful ornaments and superficiality so we won’t want to hear the truth, thereby perpetuating its decay. This song embodies voices that refuse to be silenced: an insurgent, defiant cry emerging from the depths to shake society from its slumber, even at the risk of becoming a fallen court jester.
Over approximately six minutes, Yavenirie Amok creates an enveloping, ritual atmosphere in which their hypnotic leitmotif plunges the listener into a trance designed to reconnect us with the roots of everything we are.
This third single emerges after a gruelling year that dismantled and rebuilt them with greater ferocity. Previous tracks ‘Fire’ and ‘Black Book’ ignited the flame that continues to burn fiercely.
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