With her second album »hexed!«, Aya has switched up her sound creating tracks that are more sonically dense, abrasive and often aggressive in tone. Her 2021 debut full length effort »im hole« married synth drones and dissonance with sparse beats and Aya’s spoken and sometimes screamed vocals. It was an emotive record that saw her acting as a sort of narrator or commentator across the shifting beds of experimental sound, drawing together a cohesive and intriguing whole.
Hexed!
Aya has described »im hole« as a »ketamine album«. Essentially designed to mirror the effects of the drug on the body through reworking some of the fundamentals of dance music into a dizzying and disorienting experience. In many ways »hexed!« comes off as a mirror image of »im hole«: It’s an emotionally brutal set of tracks that she’s described as confronting »the desperation and dysfunction of addiction« – where her first album explored the impact of ketamine and other drugs from the perspective of using them to escape, the new record looks at the aftermath of this path.
Across tracks like »I am the pipe I hit myself with«, »navel gazer« and »off to the ESSO« she dives headlong into the worlds of addiction, withdrawal, depression and trauma. Often coming across as a cleansing or transformative experience for the artist, the music may be dark and harrowing, but it is also deeply compelling.
All of Aya’s music to date is undoubtedly personal, but the nature of themes explored on »hexed!« make it all the more human. Every glitch, every drone, every dissonant sound and scream seems to be a portal deeper into the conscious and subconscious feelings of the artist.
Growth and redemption
Understanding Aya’s musical arc to date and the daring artistic developments that she has made across her two studio albums requires looking into where she has been as a person. Growing up in the Northern English town of Huddersfield, she was drawn to Christian rock in her youth and joined a Pentecostal church and embraced a life of worship and devotion to Jesus. Things changed when she confided that she might be queer in the church leaders. Told to remain in the closet or leave, she chose the latter.
Leaving the church, Aya moved to Manchester, emersed herself in the club scene, started taking drugs and making dance music. Over a number of years her sonic explorations and the trajectory of her career as a musician, producer and DJ has closely mirrored the trials and personal developments within her life.
Where her first album explored the impact of ketamine and other drugs from the perspective of using them to escape, the new record looks at the aftermath of this path.
While »hexed!« is clearly an album soaked in trauma and suffering, as a sonic experience it feels somehow transcendent, as if the listener is being dragged through Aya’s own personal processes of growth and redemption.
The sound palettes she plays with are of course highly synthetic, drawing on everything from UK bass and industrial to noise music.
With »hexed!« Aya has developed her approach musically and thematically. Listening to her albums back-to-back her path and thought processes are clear. Despite the artistic leaps forward taken on the record, there is much on the new record that fans of »im hole« will find familiar such as her vocal delivery and some of the sonic elements. Although this time around everything is more raw, more disorienting and more painful. We may only be in the spring, but Aya has delivered what is likely to be one of the most distinctive and memorable electronic albums of 2025. Emotionally wrought, challenging and personal – »hexed!« is not to be missed by fans of experimental electronica. It will be fascinating to see where her life and artistry take her next.
