badik!

In cities like Almaty and Astana, a generation of artists is fusing ritual, folk memory, and post-industrial electronics into forms that feel both local and futuristic. Several labels and collectives have nurtured a sound that’s collaborative and unafraid of dissonance, making Kazakhstan Central Asia’s most progressive and active hub for experimental music. Kokonja is one of these contemporary Kazakh artists, exploring identity, tradition, and the lingering pressures of colonial shadows through both her music and her textile work. Her album badik! is a dense, shape-shifting record that channels spiritual ritual into the digital realm: muttered invocations become percussive loops, distorted drones mimic the hum of communal chanting, and sampled breaths puncture the rhythmic surface. The music is uneasy and intense, but also playful and slightly hallucinatory, like on the delirious “agugigai,” where acid squiggles and fractured rhythms collide with folk timbres and bone shattering beats that suddenly drop out to make room for bright, pop-like vocal fragments that cut momentarily through the chaos. “Kөshirilgen” unfolds as a whirlwind of intense rhythms and distant, almost ghostly cries, yet everything feels organic, earthy, and very much alive, like a ritual seen through a fevered, electric lens. 18-minute closer “Jylyjai” is an ambient piece composed from wind waves caught by traditional Kazakh string instruments dombra and kobyz, drifting in slow, hypnotic cycles; just as you think it’s about to fade, after being lulled by its low-frequency rumblings and distant, bell-like chimes, a deep pulse stirs everything back to life.