Maara

(This article’s English version was produced with AI-assisted translation)

After a debut devoted to nocturnal downtempo tones, "Ultra Villain", released on NAFF, the label run by Ex-Terrestrial and Priori, shifts the axis only slightly. The opening track makes a promise of revelation: "Glimmers Of Hope" inherits the Bowery Electric school and translates it through contemporary tech ingredients: noir and velvety, sensual and otherworldly. Subwoofers flirting with claustrophobic trip hop alternate with less enveloping passages, in a sequence that moves between variety and filler with mixed results.
Little by little, the rhythm takes off: "NV-0" reveals glimpses of trance brightness, shaped through progressive-house rhythms and a leftfield-pop vocal suspended. The artist often adopts a sensual, almost slurred singing style, coherent with obsessive and intimate lyrics: like a breathless sigh between low frequencies and muffled textures, finding its strength in moments of transcendence, where synthesizers and rhythm fit together with precision.

"Obsessive Compulsion" pushes further, between constructions that evoke thoughts going in circles and an almost suffocating rhythmic tension. The fourteen tracks cover almost sixty-two minutes, moving from claustrophobia to layered rhythms, from foggy guitars to more airy constructions. Maara’s voice runs through the whole album like a guiding thread, at times almost confessional, balanced between obsession and surrender. In the best moments, such as "Dangerous Games" or the title track, the sound floats between the club and the living room with convincing ease. A few cuts would have been enough to make the whole thing more incisive.

30/03/2026