Moving away from her dark industrial sound, the Lebanese artist Thoom is trespassing singer-songwriter territory on ‘Pork’. A world where the voice becomes prevalent and the overall sound more introspective. Whereas before she used to hide immense amounts of anger in her songs, there is a certain fragility at play here. Though still rather shy and hidden in layers of banging drums and the occassional harsh noise, is a soft voice singing sweet tunes. Immensely deconstructed on the unsettling ‘It’s Going to be Ablaze’ . ‘Pork’ the sound of someone who longs for her home country, always travelling and settling down somewhere, with a heart longing for Beirut. The overall sadness works as an inspiration, making her sonically touch on her heritage without going to obviously lost in those sounds. As gentle is the dabke-rhythm on ‘Eat To Taste’, as tender the reference to Asmahan on ‘Sound of a Heavy Stone’. Sonically similar to Lucrecia Dalts’ early material. A sound she also displays on ‘Shaytan’. A remarkable choice as a first single. A brave one too. It immediately shows that Thoom has quite some stories to tell and wants to leave space to grow as an artist. ‘Pork’ feeds the curiosity of a next release. Where will she evolve to? Will there always be some rebelliousness in her sounds? This is definitely the sound of an artist searching, testing and growing and trying not to be destroyed by the norm.
‘Pork’, Career Whore, 2020
