20. Orbit culture - "Descent"

‘Nija’ was one of 2020’s sleeper hits, an album that slowly but with precise intent wormed its way into our collective consciousness. Technically their difficult fourth album, this is their attempt to follow up the record that brought them such prominence. I suspect you can guess by the heady heights that it has attained, that they have completely succeeded in not just following up what they did before but completely and utterly surpassing it. 

This is an album that manages to be simultaneously nasty but also sumptuously beautiful. It is really heavy and really brutal, but it does so with an astounding level of songwriting. It uses jagged unrefined noise, but it cultivates it into the most astonishing shapes. Every track is immaculately sculptured and the attention to detail is utterly astonishing. Yes, it’s heavy and harsh but it is also immaculately polished. The future is theirs for the taking.