Music Review - Izar

Hi everyone!
Welcome to the second edition of music review. This time, i'll review the DnB / jungle producer Izar. Remember that the opinions said in this kinda posts are totally subjective and NOT professional at all.

Izar's music really reflects their liking for stars and space, as it is very starry and cosmic, but not cosmic in like a funny alien manner (at least, not most of the songs), but in a magnificent, "megalophobia" kind of way. You truly feel like the sound you are listening to relates to some astronomic event like a supernova or something like that; this is specially true for some of their best songs.

Now, the thing I really wanted to talk about in this post is one of his albums and two songs in speceific: the album "Self expression", Born of a Star and the previous song's remix, Born to be a star. Why? because I have a theory/headcanon about this songs and album.

Before you continue reading, to avoid "spoilers", I suggest you listen to the songs before further reading, in the following order: Born of star, "Self expression" and Born to be a star. These songs are just music, with barely any lyrics, so they are kinda difficult to interpret. The story I think the songs tell is actually really simple, it's a person that, when exiting childhood, becomes extremelly challenged by life: he develops anxiety and depression, probably due to him being trans and experiencing severe disphoria. In this situation, he tries to end his life.

To this point, this looks like a just depressing album/story; the album's songs are literally Childhood, Growing Up, Changes; then Depression, Anxiety, Disphoria, and lastly Self hatred, When all my dreams died and S*icide attempt (again). The depressing themes of bad self-perception and mental health are very, and I mean REALLY common across this music genre, so much that sometimes it can get tiring; like, sometimes you are just listening to some sick amen breaks and then see the title of the song is someting like "extreme depression state of mind" or somethin along those lines. This is not the case for "Self expression" tho, because you can actually see the downfall of a person, that was previously happy and whose life is becoming more and more miserable; the album builds up "momentum" before bombarding you with those dark feelings.

Luckily for the protagonist, the album doesn't end there. After Su*cide attempt (again) comes a surprise: Keep trying...please introduces a glimpse of hope for the protagonist. This part was the one that actually touched my heart, and that feeling would be mantained until the end of the album. The following songs, I think describe the fight of the protagonist of taking control of his life, that would start a period of self reflection and meditation, reflected in The Turtle. We arrive at My last spark. This song literally made me cry, not because its actually sad, but because its implications. Basically, it seems that the protagonist is using all his remaining force, one that looks like comes out of nowere. This is enhanced by the otherworldly tone of Izar's style.

After this song, the album abruptly ends, with an open ending that leaves you wanting to know wether the protagonist was able to escape his ordeal or failed to do so. Luckily, here's where the songs Born of a star and its remix, Born to be a star enter. From this point on, my theory gets kinda delulu because the two songs probably don't have anything in common (from the artist's perspective), but I kinda think that what I'm gonna say makes some sense.

Basically, I see Born of a star as a prequel to the album, that sets the tone of the whole story, like the short summary in the back of a book; Born to be a star, would represent the aftermath of the last song of "Self Expression"; it's like a good ending to the story, where the protagonist was able to remake himself. The monologue at the end of the song is very beautiful and, in a very corny way, I wish the protagonist did really become a star.

After the rant about the album, i'll talk about some higlights of Izar's discograpy:

• End of my life: part of the same EP as Born of a star. Its very epic and sounds like a very legenday and dare death.
• Depression: conveys very well the sensation of meaninglessness and dread depression can make a person feel, very powerful.
• To outer space: silly song cover art, silly tone in general. I needed to listen to this after all the emotions the other songs made me feel.
• Singularity: gives eldrich cosmic horror vibes and makes one feel weird in a very cool way.

We reach the end of the review, I hope y'all liked it and can relate to some of the ways I feel about Izar's music. I trully think they are a musician that has gone under the scope, and deserves more recognisement, because they really bring a fresh thematic to the usual depressing and brutal style of DnB and "breakcore" music genre.

Here I'll put all the songs citated with the "Self Expression" album, so you can listen to them yourselves. Cited songs |  Self expression