Hanoi duo Pilgrim Raid will release their debut album, ‘Anna Agenda’, via London-based label CHINABOT next month. You can hear the track ‘Thiên Thần và Ác Quỷ’ below.
Inspired in part by the popular Vietnamese dance style, Vina House, the duo of Long Trần and Vuong Thien take the genre’s EDM maximalism and chuck it in a blender with as many other sounds as possible. Glittery trance melodies crash into acoustic guitars, strings and field recordings; rib-rattling bass lines bolster sugar-rush synth leads; ‘90s rave breaks crumble into heaps of emotional distortion and spoken TV samples.
Across its 10 tracks, hints of video game music, emo, electroclash and deconstructed club collide with one another. If it sounds chaotic, that’s because it is – but, somehow, the pair find beauty in it. It’s thrilling, and often overwhelming, but its moments of mania are matched by moments of hectic tenderness.
Long Trần and Vuong Thien are active members of Hanoi’s DIY noise and electronic scene and play in the band Mona Evie. This album is a prime example of the excitement and electricity that exists at that scene's core. It’s the sound of wild experimentation hitting the jackpot.
‘Anna Agenda’ will be released on 1st October. Pre-order it here.