Still from Youtube video by Rezz
‘Nightmare on Rezz Street’ music review
By Sonam Kaloti, Arts Editor
5/5
Rezz—real name Isabelle Rezazadeh—is an electronic dance music producer who recently released a 32-minute audio track titled . It is a Halloween mix of unreleased original music, both old and new.
“I want my fans to hear it because I always wonder what my favourite artists never released,” said Rezz in the YouTube video bio. Each track of the mix is complemented by a unique music video counterpart. It was released on October 22 and is available to download for free on SoundCloud.
In a video posted on her Twitter the day of the mix’s release, Rezz told followers that her visual team worked hard on the project. “A lot of us lost a lot of sleep over it. It was actually kind of stressful because it was pretty last minute,” she said. The project itself was done quickly and with vigour, with Rezz also stating in the video that that “Everyone had to really get it together and push really hard because I wanted it to be ready in time for Halloween.”
Although the tracks on the mix sound quite different, it is hard to tell when one track has ended and another has begun. This is both a positive and a negative: While the flow and mixing between the tracks is smooth, it makes the tracks themselves a little indistinguishable. However, Rezz has stated that this fluidity was intentional. Each song in the mix is titled “ID” because she wants the mix to stand as one entity rather than a composition of multiple tracks.
The harmonies in all of Rezz’s songs are extremely characteristic of her sound. There are minor keys within the bass and drum programming, while single notes in synths complete the chords and create a storyline throughout the mix. I’ve noticed more play with crashes in this mix than most of her other recent releases from Certain Kind of Magic. I’d imagine the tracks with more crashes are from her older unreleased music, which makes listening to Nightmare on Rezz Street that much more of an experience, since we can try to listen to how her skill and music have evolved.
The visuals coincide with the audio in a way that makes you feel like you can’t look away. The bass booms in your ears while your eyes are glued to swimming DNA particles and red flames engulfing the screen. There are clips of animations where you can see a videogame form of Rezz traversing burning forests and cities, using her magical powers to create a tornado of fire. We see both audio and visual clips from movies, layered upon each other to create creepy distortions of faces and scenes. Near the end there are real-life scenes of Rezz in a forest wearing large metal claws and her iconic light-up glasses.
“If you’re seeing me on tour in the next couple months you’ll be getting a Certain Kind Of Magic x Nightmare On Rezz Street set,” said Rezz on her Twitter on October 23. She is performing at the PNE Forum in Vancouver on November 17.
