A gripping, escalating rock fervency takes hold on “I Keep On Not Dying,” a new collaborative track from the projects FHMY and AQL. A textured, fuzzy shoegaze sound emanates throughout, melding with philosophical inspirations like Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, and Albert Camus to result in a heady entrancement. A haunting, concluding spoken-word lushness also intrigues, utilizing a sample from Neon Genesis Evangelion. The result is an intoxicating rock success from FHMY and AQL, the former of which is described as “the first Egyptian shoegaze project in Egypt and North Africa.”
Kafka’s concept of metamorphosis is a primary influence, surrounding the role of a tormented artist forced to bear witness to societal violence in order to produce art. A specific Tarkovsky quite is also referenced, reinforcing this concept: “Some sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists because the world is not perfect.”
A soaring yet solemn guitar tone builds alongside an introspective vocal delivery, gradually expanding into percussive pit-pattering and additional guitar layers past the two-minute turn. The second half wholly satiates with its uptick in distorted guitar swells, fading out thereafter into the eerily enveloping Neon Genesis Evangelion sample. “I Keep On Not Dying” is a fully resonating standout from FHMY and AQL.
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup, as part of the artist’s promotional campaign.
