Entering Nina's Inferno on Nine Skies by Nina's Keysmash
Nine Skies is a hodgepodge of various electronic foundations–chiptune, drum and bass, house music, pop–rolled into a surprising lyrical structure from one song to another.
Indisputably, music is transportation. Sometimes it’s about taking us somewhere, to a specific time, place, or emotion. Reminiscing about old times or fantasizing about new ones; it’s about the destination.
To run an old cliche, music can also be about the journey rather than the destination. Like a novel, a piece can have a narrative structure, story arcs, twists and turns, a central theme and a satisfying conclusion.
Nine Skies by Nina’s Keysmash, released on May 15th, falls into the latter category.
Nine Skies is a hodgepodge of various electronic foundations–chiptune, drum and bass, house music, pop–rolled into a surprising lyrical structure from one song to another. Chipper high-tempo beats hide deceptively dark lyrical content underneath distortion and glitch effects that allude to things like gender identity, therianism, and thoughts about artistic integrity in the face of artificially generated content.
“Seven Seas, Nine Skies” is a frequent lyrical motif across the 9 track, 31 minute runtime. I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to Dante’s Inferno in multiple ways, from a slow descent to the last explosive track, its numerical implications–Dante’s Inferno is known most famously for its depictions of the nine circles of hell–and multiple references to heaven and hell.
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The album opener “Tetraformer” is a pretty abrupt and tense tonal introduction with familiar, even nostalgic effects and a soundscape that took me back to old video game soundtracks and 90’s electronic music. Encompassing a song about artificial intelligence with what many would associate with nostalgia makes perfect sense, harkening us back to days where AI was merely a word in science fiction novels.
“Artificial creation / Chokes the air from the soul / The life from the craft / The joy from the act / The point from it all / Artificial intelligence / Antichrist born”
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“Sunburn” feels like basking on a warm sunny afternoon in tall grass and a soft breeze. It’s a really satisfying breather after the tension and density of the first two tracks.Placing it here, after two heavier tracks, was a really clever way for Nina to give us this sense of a rest on our journey. Despite the journey behind us and ahead, we know it’s going to be okay.
Reinforcing this idea of respite is the way we are reintroduced immediately and repeatedly to the central motif “Seven Seas, Nine Skies” in the next song, the title track “Nine Skies”, which introduces us to some of the most visceral lyrics yet. I’m a fan of the way Nina contrasts the viscerality of human anatomical destruction with therian transformation, establishing that this is a permanent and irreversible change.
“Broken and irreparable now / I can never go back / Would I even want to?”
At the halfway point of Nine Skies, “Cirrostratus” carries this idea of being the middle of the journey on its back. The sudden sharp turn from the penetrating bass and deep, low vocals in the verse to an uplifting chiptune and pop-fuelled chorus feels like a song split in half by two dividing ideas and at odds with itself, like two halves of the same narrator arguing with itself.
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Now that we’re over the hill and the end is in sight, we are introduced to one of the most deceptively chipper songs on the album. “Now Listen Up Buster” has my favourite hooks, and is startlingly catchy and danceable. “Holochrome” is smartly ironic in how it uses high-pitched vocals on a song about being fake and vapid.
This idea of contrast comes again repeatedly in the last two tracks, which feel like companion tracks that compliment each other by being so starkly different . “I’m Literally Just A Dog, Dude” is one of the most stripped-back songs and my favourite percussive moments with the catchy backing beat and crunchy lo-fi vocals.
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Track nine also carries a theme of dogs–therianthropy, of course, being another central theme. “Not All Dogs Go to Heaven” is like Dante’s final stop on the last circle of Hell. It’s chaotic, apocalyptic, and heavy. I certainly wasn’t expecting a heavy metal breakdown on Nine Skies but this track brings it in droves. There’s droning guitar and aggressive, guttural vocals. In Dante’s Inferno, the last circle of hell is reserved for treachery. Nina’s ninth track is a fiery condemnation of artificially generated art–and really, what bigger treachery to an artist is that?
Intentional or not, the frequent references I found that could be tied to Dante’s Inferno satisfyingly ties together what the central themes of Nine Skies are all about: deception and change. Things are not always what they seem on the surface, from fake content that tries to hide its lack of soul, and things don’t need to, or shouldn’t, stay the same, as the therian journey and transformations inhabit.
Nine Skies by Nina’s Keysmash is available on Bandcamp and streaming services.
Bandcamp New & Notable May 29, 2019