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Rakka Image
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The latest full-length release for the Finnish electronic producer Sasu Ripatti is his first credited under his Vladislav Delay moniker in six years.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Apr 28, 2020
    90
    Absolutely astonishing work, and easily up there with Delay's early-2000s masterpieces Multila and Anima.
  2. The Wire
    Mar 11, 2020
    80
    Unlike many electronic producers whose work echoes the chill of black metal, he retains a certain subtlety – each jolt of sound is unburdened by grand posturing. [Apr 2020, p.52]
  3. Mar 6, 2020
    80
    From end to end, Rakka thrives on instability and the fear it fosters. Its beats lock into a grid for only a minute or so at a time, allowing you just enough space to settle into a groove before dropping you into some cacophonous abyss.
  4. Mar 30, 2020
    80
    With Rakka, Vladislav Delay has created an arresting album of sheer punishing density that encapsulates the ecological pressures of a land that is brutal and unforgiving at the best of times, but occasionally encompass moments of estranged beauty.
  5. Mar 6, 2020
    60
    Rakka contains some of Ripatti's most thrilling and unpredictable sound design, but taken in one sitting, it's hard to know what to do with it.
  6. Mar 6, 2020
    60
    While a clearing of the cobwebs is liberating for the artist, the resulting record is a tough sell for its audience, even one as dedicated as Vladislav Delay's. Rakka could be a step towards something great. But too often, getting through it is like walking with a stone in your shoe.
  7. Mar 6, 2020
    60
    There are some moments of relatively steady rhythm on Rampa and Raataja, but it is techno of the most bludgeoning kind and, given the surrounding chaos, you can never settle into it. Just as the climate crisis can feel alienating in its scale and gravity, it is easy to recoil from this fire alarm of a record.
Score distribution:
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