Live Review: Ribongia's 'Shakti' is a non-stop sonic rollercoaster

It's always interesting when a song takes you for a turn that you weren't expecting. After listening to music for most of your life, you hear certain sounds or dive deep into certain Spotify playlists feeling you have a clear grasp on what to expect. So when a song subverts your expectations and completely flips the script on you, you're taken aback. You sit back in your chair, arms clasping the sides and you catch yourself paying more attention than ever before. Now imagine a song doing that but 10 times over in the space of four minutes. That song exists, its name is 'Shakti' and it's helmed by the unstoppable RIBONGIA.

'Shakti' is a song that is so diverse, dynamic and packed to the brim with different sounds that you'd swear it was an entire album. Opening with a rapid, infectious percussion before having vocal distortion breathed across it, Ribongia straps you in and sets you off once those extra-terrestrial synths zoom in. Come to around the 2-minute mark and the song lets you rest for a few seconds before peppering your ears with the familiar sounds of a sitar, taking you on yet another whirlwind ride. The only thing that's consistent throughout 'Shakti' is the energy. Ribongia has fused this song with such electricity and such vivaciousness that it almost feels tangible on the listener's end - a task not easy to accomplish, nonetheless with a song that's this eclectic.

Ribongia always injects his work with slightly askew tastes and bucketloads of energy, but 'Shakti' is by far his most eclectic and energetic to date. Taken from his forthcoming debut album, M∆∆T, out next month, it's a sonic rollercoaster that leaves you breathless, wondrous and completely upheaved. But resistance is futile as each glaring synth and precocious drumbeat pulls you further and further in, until you realise this is a ride that you don't wanna get off any time soon.

M∆∆T is out March 16 via October Records.

Words by JACKSON LANGFORD

Photo by Cole Bennetts

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