Negative Gain Productions artists, Total Chroma have just unveiled their new full length release, Lapland. From the frost kissed expanse of the North, the synth punk inspired album emerges from Total Chroma's creative sanctum, an exploration of his Sami lineage.
The Sami, for those unacquainted, are the indigenous denizens of the Arctic, a people whose song has echoed across the icy plains, fjords and tundras of Scandinavia and Russia for millennia, and whose history, like the labyrinthine forests of the North, is both rich and shadowed.
With every note, Total Chroma's main architect, Isku Katerwol, delves deeper, and as he descends, the narrative grows increasingly somber. We're led on an odyssey, not just of a people's extermination of culture but a reflection of Katerwol's own metamorphosis.
The track "Such Filth", for example, becomes an anthem of cyclical birth, echoing the ethos that from the murk and mire, radiant beauty can ascend. It's a chant, a hymn to origins and the phoenix-like rise from desolation. On the subject of "Starvation", Katerwol muses: This song, though cloaked in fiction, unveils a tale of a love once effervescent, now dulled post the 'honeymoon phase'. Both souls, parched for each other's touch, find themselves trapped in a vortex of unsaid emotions and suppressed needs.
Sonically, Lapland’s auditory palette is rich, coloured with the gritty hues of post-punk, the electric vibrancy of synth pop, the pulsating rhythms of EBM, and the melancholic undertones of minimal wave. It's an alchemy that Katerwol has mastered, creating tracks that resonate deeply, echoing both the icy vastness of the North and the warmth of human emotion. Each song becomes a journey through time and self, a testament to Katerwol's prowess as an artist and the timeless resonance of the genres he so deftly melds.
Lapland is available on vinyl LP format and digitally on all major platforms including Bandcamp via Negative Gain Records.
