Rising Action

Talking some tracks that could have easily been (and almost were) included in the post a couple of weeks ago: "Destroy Me". All from one artist this time as well in Zamilska. I, like probably many, was first introduced to their works via Ruiner, a cyberpunk hyper-violent twin stick shooter. Like Hotline Miami before it, the soundtrack choices were absolutely impeccable and Zamilska's contributions certainly stand out.

What sticks out to me about all the tracks I've chosen today is the reason for the title of the post, they're always building. Much like some of Clark's works, just when you think things have peaked something else is introduced to the mix. Zamilska's bandcamp mentions a bunch of influences including Noise and modern World Music, and that influence doesn't take long to show on tracks like Closer; the haunting chants of the intro soon giving way to rumbling electronics and a downright anxious synth. And really that's all of my choices today to a T, to sum them up in one word: Pressure. These tracks are absolutely unrelenting and once they get momentum just do not stop.



And it's this tension that permeates the entirety of their catalogue, even down to the choice of titles: all of them track single, punchy words. The intro of Smash sounds more like your traditional synthwave affair, but it's not long before a bit of that World influence from before makes an appearance, albeit distant in the back of the mix (and it won't appear in the main body for some time after that). It's potentially the most conventional of my picks so far, very stripped down compared to continuous cacophony of Closer, yet it's still very effective in building that tension over time. The sprinkling of some backing synths that evoke the 2010's blog electro sound to me during the last half is a real treat too.



Ruin sees a return to the Closer style of sound, this time with a hint of glitch influence on there to boot, when the beat is introduced it sounds like the arm of a disk drive stuck in a particularly nice sounding rhythmic loop. It too is a brilliant example of Zamilska's penchant for excellently building up; while there's not as many layers as some of the other examples here, it still grows into a lumbering monster by the halfway mark, there's barely any room between the elements to breathe. There are no real breakdowns save for something dropping out of the mix for a few bars, and any possible area of silence is filled with noise. Overthinking, represented in musical form.



I will admit it's taken me a little time to warm to Zamilska, the tracks posted are still my favourites and granted all of them are from the Ruiner OST (though I think Closer doesn't actually appear on the OST you can buy), but between the last post I made and now it's a vibe I'm very much into right now. I've yet to check out their latest album (from 2019) in any capacity, but I am very interested in where they take the sound going forward, and the progressions made in the ~3 years since Undone.

-CVF