Azita Disturbing the Air [Drag City] Reviewed by Chris Auman The twelve songs on Disturbing the Air probably won’t get stuck in your head. Having been freed from Azita’s mind, they aren't likely to be confined ever again. What may linger, however, is the melancholy feeling and dark mood created by her sparse piano ballads. I don't know that Azita creates outsider art, but she definitely works on the outside of conventional music. She always has, despite her training in classical piano. From her time in no wave bands, Scissor Girls and Bride of No No, Azita has always brought a challenge to the turntable. What was once loud, abrasive and impossible to ignore has become equally challenging and confrontational on a different emotional level. With just her voice and simple, at times atonal, piano lines, Azita creates haunting songs of emptiness and loneliness that won’t quickly fade from your psyche. Year [Drag City] Reviewed by Chris Auman Year is the sixth solo record for the avant garde chanteuse, and former no-wave antagonist, AZITA. It's a slight departure from her previous effort, Disturbing the Air. One might even call it accessible. Almost. It has its darker moments to be sure, (like the song "Opening" later reprised as "Closing"), but songs like "Out and Around" have a hopeful, optimistic vibe to them and "Ice", despite the coldness of the title, conjours up feelings of inside warmth when outside it's anything but. "Passengers" has AZITA's piano sharing space with a warm-toned guitar that verges on 70s AM radio. “It’s Understanding” is a rolling piano tune that showcases AZITAs immediately recognizable, and at times atonal, singing voice searching for the key before thinking better of it. The standout track for me, clocking in at eight minutes and fifty-one seconds, is the surprisingly good, dubby reggae tune, “Something That Happened”—just another twist in the shifting road Azita travels on.
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Azita

Disturbing the Air

Azita Disturbing the Air

The twelve songs on Disturbing the Air probably won’t get stuck in your head. Having been freed from Azita’s mind, they aren't likely to be confined ever again. What may linger, however, is the melancholy feeling and dark mood created by her sparse piano ballads.

I don't know that Azita creates outsider art, but she definitely works on the outside of conventional music. She always has, despite her training in classical piano. From her time in no wave bands, Scissor Girls and Bride of No No, Azita has always brought a challenge to the turntable. What was once loud, abrasive and impossible to ignore has become equally challenging and confrontational on a different emotional level.

With just her voice and simple, at times atonal, piano lines, Azita creates haunting songs of emptiness and loneliness that won’t quickly fade from your psyche.

Year

[Drag City]

Reviewed by Chris Auman

Azita Year

Year is the sixth solo record for the avant garde chanteuse, and former no-wave antagonist, AZITA. It's a slight departure from her previous effort, Disturbing the Air. One might even call it accessible. Almost.

It has its darker moments to be sure, (like the song "Opening" later reprised as "Closing"), but songs like "Out and Around" have a hopeful, optimistic vibe to them and "Ice", despite the coldness of the title, conjours up feelings of inside warmth when outside it's anything but.

"Passengers" has AZITA's piano sharing space with a warm-toned guitar that verges on 70s AM radio. “It’s Understanding” is a rolling piano tune that showcases AZITAs immediately recognizable, and at times atonal, singing voice searching for the key before thinking better of it.

The standout track for me, clocking in at eight minutes and fifty-one seconds, is the surprisingly good, dubby reggae tune, “Something That Happened”—just another twist in the shifting road Azita travels on.