CITIZEN:KANE - The Last Whistle (2021)

Lisbon veteran and scene agitator Citizen:Kane has been reverently experimenting with the limits of electronic music in the past few years, bringing a much-needed generosity and curiosity to the artistic practice in the community. We're lucky enough to have his new album on Rave Tuga. Titled 'The Last Whistle', it concisely and soulfully encapsulates his signature sound-spirit, one where synths can sing and drum machines laugh and cry.

Cinematic drones and sci-fi bleeps invite us to an otherworldly realm on the opener, 'Cujo Fujo'. And so the trip to new and exciting sonic territories begins, with deliberate playfulness and experienced experimentalism taking the wheel on A2 and A3, with twisted synths expertly programmed taking us places both mentally and physically.

Arpeggios, digital birds, field recordings and familiar echoes in Portuguese invade our senses in 'Lavar as Tripas'. With 'Perplexing' we are taken into dubbed out, flanger-led dance-landscapes in a superb dialogue between sound design and trance-inducing DJ weaponry, just before we jump into the warm yet defying bassline that closes this side of the album, automated to emulate the kind of metamorphose our minds experience while sweating it out at a suburban Lisbon warehouse.

Dark, energetic arpeggiated basslines continue to haunt us perfectly as we step into the B side, with echoes of EBM and industrial creating the otherwise swingy techno heavy-hitter that is 'The Mad Parade'. Things get headier and trippier as we dive deeper into the album, with ambient and slow jams that manage to marry the celestial and the austere. Closer 'Baking' drives us out of this mesmerising ride with what sounds like traditional music from a nonplace in the future, where humanity's old problems are redundant and communal life is full of possibilities.

All proceeds from this album will go to Casa T Lisboa, an organisation that provides shelter for trans immigrants.