Dear listeners and readers of Soundville,

Ah, Berlin, a city where alleyways can open into portals to other dimensions and music is never just music. You might ask: what makes this place so specia?? My answer is simple: ‘Bald Chewbacca’s Resurrection: Live at Madame Claude’ by Bald Chewbacca.

Bald Chewbacca is the project of Angelo Romano, an electronic soul who has coined the term Zizekwave for his creation, a volatile fusion of experimental electronics and philosophical provocation with the unmistakable voice. The result is academic thought transformed into a weapon for the dancefloor. His new live album ‘Bald Chewbacca’s Resurrection: Live at Madame Claude’, performed and recorded in Berlin, carries the peculiar charm of the German night air, electrified by synth wires and sharpened by the glint of spotlights. That is why you should brace yourself, listening to this record is the closest you will come to a life-altering assault, a philosophical rave, and a séance of dark magic all at once. Here, music is not background, it is an event that might change you.

The story behind it already feels like a modern myth: three years after his staged ‘death’, Bald Chewbacca was resurrected through an exorcism ritual at Berlin’s club Madame Claude. Phantasmagoria? Performance art? Labels quickly dissolve, because the energy unleashed that night was undeniable, hitting straight in the solar plexus and making every cell vibrate. Perhaps that is why ‘Bald Chewbacca’s Resurrection: Live at Madame Claude’ feels less like an album and more like a fully embodied sensory experience, balanced on the edge between sound and delirium. Across 10 tracks, Bald Chewbacca works with several genres at the same time. This is electronics, experimental, indie, a touch of folk and new wave. Yes, all exactly like that, and this is what makes Bald Chewbacca’s music so sincerely beautiful and great, an act of creation and love. And I would like to point out a few of my favorite live songs, the ones that stayed with me the most.

The album opens with the track ‘Welcome to the Extinction Lounge,’ where flowing synth pads, a humming cosmic bass, and bursts of guitar scatter echoes across the space. If you were busy with your own thoughts, ‘Welcome to the Extinction Lounge’ will fully absorb you with the experimental and extravagant sound of Bald Chewbacca. The melody shifts and spirals in a synthetic whirlwind, with flickering keys shimmering throughout. Bald Chewbacca’s voice is processed as if passed through radio waves, creating the atmosphere of a message from another universe. There is both a dark, frightening mood and a glossy, electronic sheen. The vocal distortions, sometimes too low, sometimes too high, evoke the sensation of a tense nerve about to snap, spilling existential horror into the mind.

It’s beautiful but unsettling, and perhaps not every listener will find themselves in this sound. However, if you take this leap of faith into Bald Chewbacca’s music, believe me, your life might change forever with the discovery of a unique sound. It’s worth noting that all the tracks have extended lengths, allowing you to completely lose yourself in the album and discover the metamorphoses of its sound. I like how ‘UBI (Universal Basic Intercourse),’ with its deep bass, overloaded pads, and ringing percussion, explodes inside the skull. There is no consolation here, only a low hypnotic wave unfolding into cosmic sound, but it’s not so simple. Vocal fragments still hold you within this multidimensional cosmic space.

A dark and cinematic sound unfolds in the next track, ‘Boredom Is My Drug.’ Reverberating beats, swirling synth pads, yawns pitched in various tones, sighs, a bell, and cascading keys create a vivid mini-film in the mind, with a protagonist who might be living in some dystopia. The track’s dynamics are constantly shifting; the voice breaks into a shout, and the melody twists through experimental synth pads. How close is this sound to our world? To me, it’s quite obvious that behind the hustle of commercial pop’s surface hiding reality, this is what ‘Bald Chewbacca’s Resurrection: Live at Madame Claude’ sounds like.

I appreciate how ‘The March of the Green Brigade’ adds brighter tones, almost hip hop rhythms, a powerful, unifying atmosphere with forceful phrases that paint an image of movement, resistance, and march. The keys in ‘The March of the Green Brigade’ surge like a perfect storm, creating an illusion of flickering light, while a dense bass resonates with the surrounding space skillfully crafted by Bald Chewbacca. ‘Bald Chewbacca’s Resurrection: Live at Madame Claude’ is made from samples, voice, rhythms, and cinematic movement, which makes this album for me a project close to sound design and stream of consciousness, especially brightly revealed in the loud, overloaded echo voices where truth is born. Perhaps that is why the next track ‘Slavoj’s Wet Dream’ sounds like a sweet and attractive temptation. Why? At first the melody comes closer to familiar dance rhythms that invite clapping in time and swaying with the lead bass guitar, then gentle sighs and loud vocal inserts suddenly pull you out of a tired state to throw it into another where night, neon, and darkness rule the world. And if you surrender to this feeling, there is a risk of getting lost in this voluminous and unearthly sound. Are you ready for this? Are you ready to accept the tempting electronic sweetness of the forbidden? I think this will not be to everyone’s taste, but isn’t that the very spark that always attracts the most?

In the final track, ‘Porco Disco’, applause is heard at the beginning, the reaction of an energized and charged crowd wanting more. Bald Chewbacca raises the tension of his concert to its peak, starting the finale track with the ringing of a bell and a low cosmic pad that breaks down into whirlwinds of electronic sound. And believe me, once the melody unfolds into a heavy electro tremor sound, there is no way back. This change of tone and rhythm can bring you to a climax or completely scare you. This is where the uniqueness of Bald Chewbacca’s music lies, in its duality which is scolding and alien yet hides harsh reality, passion, and energy that you can fall in love with. Yes, it’s too strange, yes, too inexplicable, and that’s why I truly love it. And you?

In ‘Bald Chewbacca’s Resurrection: Live at Madame Claude’ it is impossible to predict what will happen next, in the very next second, and because of this there is no sense of control over the situation, which triggers a primal fear for one’s own safety. But you know, this cocktail of something strange and unusual is truly worth trying for everyone to find yourself, to accept even your darkest sides, or to return to ‘Bald Chewbacca’s Resurrection: Live at Madame Claude’ after a few years to hear it through the prism of new experience and uncover its secrets.

Hey Bald Chewbacca! Thank you for releasing such flawless music. You know, when I was listening to ‘Bald Chewbacca’s Resurrection: Live at Madame Claude’ it was every time as if I ended up in new facets of the universe. It sounds very spacious, bright, and it is impossible to predict the next beat. There is something here mystical, alien, commercial and attractive. I feel here incredibly much work of love and dedication and it sounds in every track, probably that is why after listening I was charged with huge inspiration. And you know, the fact that this is a live from Berlin adds to the album especially space, new meanings and makes it a certain point in time, in which was captured the live flow of music woven by energy. This is just some kind of madness! I will definitely show your album to absolutely everyone so that they also listen to such wonderful music. I love this and I want more. I am your fan!

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With much love,
Soundville