“Citadel” by Sonarpilot

Sonarpilot is not lacking in a communicative discipline in his new single “Citadel,” for each of the words missing from where a verse might have been in a standard release, this artist is pummeling us with a purely sonic emotionality that you don’t find every day in pop music. Sonarpilot is perhaps the perfect artist to take on this kind of a project, and with an ambitiously crafted number like “Citadel,” all of his unique talents are exploited for everything they’re worth individually and collectively. Evocative nuances are sewn into the very fabric of the main melody, and while the beats are high and mighty, the harmonies that are woven in between their ridges are anything but overpowering, even at their most uncontrollable and indulgent. 

Sonarpilot has a background in heavy music of the most experimental strain, and that’s more than obvious when we take a look at the super-strength in this mix. Every instrumental facet is equalized and stripped of its middle depth, creating a forceful, adrenaline-packed thunder in the bass and drums that is almost impossible to escape when it gets fired up in the clubbier parts of the song. Sonarpilot navigates the sonic channels quite well, and from where I sit, much better than any of his peers possibly could have. Sonarpilot makes godlike grooves in “Citadel,” and it takes a particularly adept director to manage not only their size but perhaps more importantly, their complicated arrangement as it’s displayed for us in this setting. In a live capacity, it’s hard to imagine a DJ dropping this on the turntable and the whole club not responding to the rhythm infecting the atmosphere with eroticism. 

There are a lot of understated ambient tones in the structure of the tempo in “Citadel,” but due to the sprawling synth melodies, they’re not as eccentric as they would have been in a more black-and-white master mix. For the most part, Sonarpilot is avoiding the very notion of using a formulaic approach to these beats, and their attention to the littlest of details in this song is constantly evidenced by the acrylic nature of the music. Texture and tonality are more important to these kinds of projects than anything else, and that alone makes this artist a more credible source of material than any others currently making noise in his scene at the moment. 

Fusing a melting pot of influences into a single expression of emotion is no easy task even for the most talented of performers, but in the case of Sonarpilot’s “Citadel,” this vehicle makes it look all too simple. As its title implies, this single doesn’t take a lot of deep analysis for listeners to become immersed in its purely divine design and surreal substance, and that’s not something that can be said for the majority of new songs that have made their way to my desk this winter. This is top-quality stuff, and I’m confident that it’s as unique an offering as you’re going to come across in the experimental genre this season. 

Mindy McCall