Poly Chain - Nemesis

A Closer Listen

Poly Chain (Kyiv-born Sasha Zakrevska) has been making music for a dozen years, and on Nemesis she takes inventory of her journey.  The tracks span that entire length, and include pieces she created in her teenaged years.  It’s notable that one cannot tell which these are, a testament to the talent she displayed at an early age.  Shifting from ambience to club music and back again, the album also symbolizes the changes that occur over the course of a life; but one cannot ignore a more topical meaning, as the tracks were written both before and after the invasion of Ukraine, and the album is described as “both a force against oppressive powers and as a tool for healing.”  Such healing sparks the artist’s new Lightronics imprint, launched by this release.

The first few tracks serve as a microcosm of the whole.  First comes the ambient beginning, and then the first video single, “Salt,” which drinks from the ambient stream while flowing toward an electronic sea.  The piece has an incredible build, but eschews percussion, making an impact with volume and texture alone.  “Sunflower” breaks the mold, allowing drums to lead the way to the dance floor.  The title connects it to Ukraine, while the mood connects it to hope; “Elisiv,” which refers to a princess of Kyiv, connects the album to history.  This is Nemesis‘ first foray into deep techno, a dark and raw excursion that will be extended on later tracks.

Western readers may think that “Caffa” means coffee, but the ominous piece refers to the Crimean city besieged by the Golden Horde, whose use of biological warfare inadvertently led to the Black Plague.  It’s unclear whether the artist wrote this piece during the pandemic or the invasion, but either way, it has a lesson to teach.  The center of the album is filled with warnings like this; the very next track is called “Horse’s Ass,” its breakbeats like the clomping of hooves.

One can hear the conflict between hope and despair, healing and collapse in the pairing of “Global Village” and “Get Home Before Curfew.”  The former, suffused with tribal rhythms, implies a place where all can get along, while the latter, at approximately 142 BPM the album’s swiftest selection, suggests agitation and oppression.  Over and over again, Nemesis acknowledges the enemy without giving in.  One might explain the proliferation of dance music in the time of occupation by the very same principle: the darker one’s circumstances, the more one clings to light.  Zakrevska now lives in Berlin, but thoughts of history and ancestry, home and country are always with her.  This sonic diary, like the current situation, has no tidy resolution, but encourages an examination of the past in order to dictate the future.  (Richard Allen)