EP REVIEW: Part Two – i Häxa

Released to coincide with Beltane – the Gaelic May Day festival celebrating the start of summer – I HÄXA’s Part Two is the second piece in a year-long tetralogy. By November the band will have dropped four EPs, each marking a solstice, before being compiled in a single album. The ambitious project involves working alongside director Daniel Broadley to create visual accompaniments, made up of lavishly shot live performances available on Pelagic Records’ YouTube channel. There are long dresses, long hair and candles which blur as in a psychedelic haze.

Made up of Rebecca Need-Menear of ANAVAE and Peter Miles, producer for ARCHITECTS, DODIE and WE ARE THE OCEAN, I HÄXA mine what it means to make and be in conversation with concepts of folk art. On opener Eight Eyes, Need-Menear’s voice lilts over an acoustic guitar and earthy bass notes. It wouldn’t sound out of place sung at a stone circle. But the spoken word of We Three is something else entirely, like an incantation recited over swirling In Rainbows-era RADIOHEAD drums. The record’s production comes to life on this cut, with beats panned on different sides of your headphones, adding to the feeling that the song is somehow all around you.

Then The Well is altogether more soulful with languid strings and lounge piano, melancholy and intimate. The screen widens and the song takes flight, introducing melodies that sound like trip hop versions of James Bond motifs, while Need-Menear breaks through the surface with some powerhouse vocal flourishes.

It constantly upends expectations: the narrated conclusion, Fog Of War, introduces a noisy soundscape, adding another style to their arsenal that is held together by electronic beats and a commitment to vibes and lore. In response to Eight Eyes’ refrain of “how does it feel?”, the answer is surprisingly cohesive, despite the disparate elements. As the Nordic folk scene continues to ramp up, I HÄXA bring something different to the alt-folk landscape, more Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England than the former’s similarities to Robert Eggers’ The Witch.

As a single quarter of a soon-to-be whole, Part Two is already on a journey when it arrives, and is to be continued when it ends. Now halfway to its completion, the project keeps giving just enough while leaving you wanting more. But with an accompanying mythology and layered songs that peel back with repeated listens, the release strategy gives time to fully appreciate each part. Unveiled piece by piece as if to slow down the constant churn of new music, I HÄXA is an intriguing and meditative project worth closing your eyes and sinking in to.

Rating: 8/10

Part Two is out now via Pelagic Records.

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