This is the highly anticipated debut from one of the most original artists of 2010, Sara Abdel-Hamid aka Ikonika!!!
‘Contact, Want, Love, Have’ doesn’t mess around or waste a note as Ikonika colours in and then discards the rulebook. Maybe it’s her background as a drummer in a post-hardcore band, her love of R'n'B and hip hop that bring in the extra dimensions that makes her melody. While on the face of it the album seems to traverse a number of retro-futurist styles, including dubstep, UK funky and garage, ‘80s synth pop and computer game soundtracks, it remains totally contemporary, coherent and focused, making the idea of restricting Ikonika’s sound to a single genre irrelevantusic stand out from the legions.
An ear odd melody, sometimes brash tone clashes, Ikonika has produced an album that feels emotionally powerful and brave. Never obvious, and bordering on the maniacally deranged at times, her hyperactive, tough and sparse drums and bright, citric synthesizers splash new shapes and fizzes of emotion all over the place. From the first woozy breeze of the accordian-like synths of opening track 'Ikonoklast', on to the deliriously twisted stomp of 'Idiot', the synthetic beauty of 'Yoshimitsu', 'Fish' and 'Heston', the computer love of 'We Are All Winning The War', the mutant g-funk half-step of 'Sahara Michael' through to the atonal soca-tronics of 'Look' and the space funky of'Psoriasis' and 'Video Delays'. Recommended!