What does Camilla Sparksss sound like?

Visceral noise pop to dance and let it all out with.

The review of ‘ICU RUN’ by Camilla Sparksss

Camilla Sparksss doesn’t do subtle on her new album ‘ICU RUN’. Each kick drum is like a brick to the skull. Each electronic synth leaves behind either whiplash or a sizzled scar where each note treads. It is utterly captivating, albeit not for the faint-hearted.

The opening track, ‘Holy Shit’ is in your face with fits of beats that drown out the synths that jangle out like a dystopian bell toll. Everything feels electric and ceremonial, pulling from Middle Eastern influences as Camilla wraps her vocals around the barbed vines of synths that power through the speakers. Taking on the dancefloor with ‘I Like The Noise’, Camilla lists off all the things she likes about the world around her. The music straddles club and dark wave as guitars hide under the synths and beats. Again, Middle Eastern influences appear with a synth that evokes Naj and Ouds from Palestinian folk rock. It blends well into the swirling chaos. ‘Stranger’ gallops in with a bass gallop that is only rivalled by the rave synths that charge in for the codas. This has more in common with artists like Amnesia Scanner, as the dancefloor takes on a gothic, demonic aggression. Camilla’s playful vocals bring some solace to the broken bones that the bass causes, and as a result, it comes off sarcastically joyful. Sparksss describes the album as a tragicomedy, and I wholeheartedly agree.

At the centre of the album is a deconstructed razor synth that reminds me of late 80s Spectrum synths. It’s so rough and dark as Camilla Sparksss turns up the damage and sizzle on it to maximum angst, that it dominates the album. ‘Damage’ uses this synth like a warning siren. Add in fast, crunchy beats, and it’s an electro-pop anti-anthem that sounds like Fischerspooner on steroids. Fast and frantic, with choruses and hooks, it might be the easiest entry point for the album. ‘Stormseeker’ is equally as approachable with its seedy, rhythmic pulsing synths and gritted guitars. It verges on cold wave, but as if Marc Almond was in full art mode.

‘Backflip’ turns its attention to industrial beats and robotic synth and vocal delivery. A sinful underbelly channels through the dissonance and the multi-lingual lyrics. As the track develops, the gothic trance edge of the track shines through, moving us through an increasingly tense exchange to “show us your teeth”. That carves the path for ‘Amani Tu’, which features Francesco Bianconi on vocals alongside Camilla. Merging techno with dark Euro-pop makes this a bold assault on the senses. Part of that is down to Bianconi’s incredibly deep voice. He could read sci-fi opening credit crawls for a living if he wanted to; it’s that dramatic. The rest of the track throbs around him, with explosive drum fills taking us off the beaten path.

Camilla Sparksss then turns to whiplash-inducing hip-hop beats and atonal synths for closer ‘Fatherless’. With Sparksss straddling nursery rhyme and rap delivery, the subwoofer-shattering bass sine waves and crashing kicks are what make this track shine early on, but the final minute is a 180-degree transition. The album leaves us with space to comprehend and breathe for the first and only time. It’s here where the lyrical thread of the album lands its punches without cover. ‘ICU RUN’ is an album about the moments where grief turns to defiance. When you lose someone, and you want to curl into a ball and hide, a well-meaning so-and-so will try to buoy you by saying how strong you are. In this moment, you can either try to convince yourself that you are strong and attempt to power through no matter what or take time to lean into the pain and embrace it for a while. Camilla Sparksss wrote the album in response to her father, who spent his last months trying to escape an intensive care unit. You can hear the visceral gut punch of dealing with life, death, chaos, sorrow, despair and dark humour in every line, beat, and razor curve. Having been there myself last year, it resonates deeply within me.

The sheer intensity of ‘ICU RUN’ and its unfiltered exploration of losing control whilst clinging onto the rollercoaster of life makes it impossible to passively listen to. You have to plug into its sonic core directly at the source. It is scary and bold. You might want to scream or dance uncontrollably like a possessed plaything. It is a playground of emotions, and one of the most affecting noise pop albums I’ve come across in the last decade. Superb. I hope Camilla Sparksss finds catharsis each time she plays it. I certainly do.

Recommended track: Fatherless

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