Live Review: INDIGENOISE harmonise the ancient with the new on 'Euphoria'

INDIGENOISE are a five-piece collective of Indigenous poets, artists, producers, musicians and practitioners based out of Byron Bay who summarise their project as one that aims to bring together “the ancient wisdom of the old ways into the new age.” Realising this is no easy feat, but on their latest single, 'Euphoria', Indigenoise prove that they are singularly equipped to do so.

For the track's accompanying visuals, director David Barker transformed the industrial spaces of Sydney’s Carriageworks into a mystical, foggy forest of LED lights for the clip. As vocalist Roslyn Barnett, cloaked in clouds of smoke, wanders through the forest, the first two minutes of the track take the shape of a similarly minimalist landscape, populated only by some atmospheric, droning synths, forlorn piano chords and Barnett’s lilting vocals.

During this section, a prophetic, lone tom strike announces a subtle tonal shift in the track: Barnett’s once operatically breathy vocals find a new sense of urgency and weight. Away from the LED forest and surrounded by shadows, her determined facial performance underscores the imminent sense of something darker rising from within. The only hint of what’s to come can be found in the faintly accelerating percussion and the ominously swelling pads. “Let me escort you,” she beckons, as the track shatters into an abstract composition of earth-rumbling bass, blaring synth stabs, clanging electronic percussion and a portentous, apocalyptic use of the space in between.

Barnett describes ‘Euphoria’ as a track that has “passionate outbursts of ecstatic eruption, and is a call to the band’s ancestry, a reconnection to themselves, tantric and tasteful.” As she lauds Indigenoise as the “fractions between the dimensions of past, future and now,” her bandmates surround her with an expressive choreography that seamlessly brings together the worlds of traditional ceremony and contemporary hip-hop. It's a perfect visual representation of the collective's ethos and sound - and demonstrates why their hybrid of contemporary and ancient styles is so exciting.

WORDS BY KYLE FENSOM

IMAGE: Supplied

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