AJA - AJA (2018)

A‘s self titled debut, on the mighty Opal Tapes, is a bracing half hour of caustic, seductive, electro-noise. AJA has been making a name for herself the last couple of years based on her extraordinary live show, a fierce explosion of power electronics, performance art, hallucinatory costumes, body paint and primal screaming nudity. Launching herself fearlessly into the audience and rolling about at their feet. When this works well she creates a shared catharsis rather than just an extreme spectacle. Her performance at last year’s Supernormal was an incredible thing to be at but you can get distracted from the claustrophobic music – a lurid, visceral sound that’s almost a physical presence in the room around you. How that kind of performance transfers to tape can be tricky. While this is recognizably the same sort of sound, she’s said that the performances are often mostly improvised whereas this is carefully written.