Aleph

Everyone please give a warm welcome to the new dark lord of electronica: Frenchman Mike Lévy, aka Gesaffelstein.

But maybe a warm welcome is not what he deserves; his debut album Aleph is a chilling, harrowing affair and a relentless and shocking entrance to the fearsome EDM scene.

At first visual glance, one may think ‘Kanye West called and he wants his album cover back’ and this isn’t far from the truth. West himself contracted Lévy to co-produce two Yeezus tracks, and it seems some of the relentless, violent energy has rubbed off onto Gesaffelstein’s debut.

Soaring from the monastic bells and terrifying spoken word cameos (one of many lurid appearances by Parisian Chloé Raunet), to the brooding, haunting air of the album’s title track, Aleph is a hair-raising experience.

If there is one lesson Lévy could have taken from working on Yeezus, it is the ageless motto of ‘short and sweet’. The record’s hour-plus runtime turns Aleph into a marathon that should have been a scintillating sprint.

But when taken in little gulps – such as the relentless power of lead singles ‘Pursuit’ and ‘Hate Or Glory’ – the album gives you everything you need to scream and dance all your frustration away.

Aleph leaves you feeling like you’ve been chased through a haunted house. You’re always alert, waiting for the next thing to jump out at you. And it’s exhilarating.

Listen to ‘Hate Or Glory’ here:

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