Deki Alem Deliver Feverish Debut Album 'Forget In Mass'
Deki Alem’s debut album Forget In Mass has finally arrived, and it’s a hedonistic sonic playground where trip-hop chill meets punk meets rave.
The twin brother duo, comprised of Sammy and Johnny Boakye Bennett, has crafted a unique, raw sound that feels instinctively animalistic and inherently rebellious. Forget In Mass sees the pair leaning heavily into a creatively chaotic world that they’ve crafted with brilliant intentionality. Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, the brothers formed Deki Alem with collaborators Richard Zastenker and Johannes Klahr during the pandemic. The group, born during a time that left many feeling unmoored, seeks to invoke community and togetherness with their music. Their debut album, in conjunction with their growing reputation as one of Sweden’s most dynamic underground must-see live acts, does just that.
Deki Alem plays fast and loose with genre throughout the album, blending together psychedelic synths, frenzied breakbeats, and shadowy basslines. Lead single “Fun” is the album’s most quintessential track, on which the pair pledge to rebel from society’s pressure to self-optimize, and instead give in to one’s most primal instincts. Atop cyber-futuristic lead synths and feverish drum and bass, the song’s lyrics are infused with biting sardonicism, with lines like “I soak myself in denial, a pile of brain-rotting needs / You desire to drag me down to your speed / That doesn’t sound like fun to me.”
This viscerality continues into the album’s second lead single, “House Fire.” An intoxicating, hypnotic beat builds throughout the song, with slightly detuned vocals contributing to an overall riotous sense of anarchism. The pair’s writing on this one reads like the jottings of a Beat writer, gritty and restless. The same rhythmic lyricism spills into the album’s next track, the trip-hop steeped “Personal Disorder.” Serving as the album’s equator, the song further pulls you into the Forget In Mass universe with a darker, more downtempo groove and lines like “The rush is getting under your skin, just caught the fever / One toe at a time, sink into the hole.”
By the second half of the album, Deki Alem’s sound has taken full form, settling listeners in before diving into the more-relaxed, moody “Lucky Wheel” and “Stray Dog.” The pair’s vocal delivery maintains its punchiness throughout, as the album winds down with “Tip Of Your Tongue,” the project’s acerbic penultimate track, and “Mr Man,” a fitting, still smoldering conclusion.
Forget In Mass is an exceptional debut album for Deki Alem; it’s stimulating, sweat-filled, and surreal. It’s a project that feels wholly crafted with precision yet is compelling in its chaotic nature. The intention is clear - to liberate you from the monotony of your day-to-day slog. The message is in the music. For those in Europe and the UK, the music takes corporeal form in a city near you with the 'Forget In Mass' headline tour kicking off in Berlin on October 29.
Listen to Forget In Mass below:
