Monokate confronts the echoes of endurance and transformation on “Live in Kyiv”, a six-track live EP that trades the kinetic electro-folk euphoria of Go_A’s “SHUM” for heavy, atmospheric distortion. Emerging from her departure from the Eurovision-heralded group, her solo work has navigated melancholic indie pop, trip-hop, and darkwave, but here she pivots decisively toward a roaring, full-band alternative rock sound.
Recorded amid wartime power cuts on auxiliary generator power, the performance carries the unvarnished immediacy of slipping backstage into a private rehearsal space where the equipment hums with stubborn vitality. It stands as a fiercely independent statemen entirely self-funded and self-produced under conditions that would silence lesser projects.
Across the set, quiet tension repeatedly detonates into massive, cathartic walls of sound. Opener “Пахнеш – Live in Kyiv” drifts along a slow, contemplative progression before collapsing into a sweeping squall of shoegaze fuzz, clinging to romantic intimacy in the face of fleeting impermanence. That yearning morphs into emotional exhaustion on “Хлопчик – Live in Kyiv,” where sparse, echoing notes try in vain to reach a detached partner before exploding into a cinematic flood of despair. On “Цілувати – Live in Kyiv,” brooding alternative rock dynamics capture the friction of internal conflict, colliding the vulnerability of total surrender against abrasive harmonic crashes.
Yet the record’s heaviest anchors grapple with collective devastation and existential weight. “Говори – Live in Kyiv” tackles the psychological trauma of war directly, portraying a landscape scarred by loss while urging those carrying the burden of defense to shatter their silence. Sparse ambient motifs build with deliberate patience before erupting into thick, distorted rhythms that carry soaring, emotionally charged vocal lines.
The performance pushes even deeper into sonic extremes on “Азарт – Live in Kyiv” and “Синтезувати струм – Live in Kyiv,” leaning hard into post-hardcore and post-metal terrain. Where “Азарт” fractures under the crushing regret of irreversible time, “Синтезувати струм” relies on a rumbling low-end and dense feedback to confront modern alienation, transforming cold existential fatigue into an overwhelming tempest of release.
What lingers long after the final feedback tail dissolves isn’t simply the sheer volume, but the stubborn vitality pulsing through the cables. When blackout shadows threaten to swallow a city whole, how else do you synthesize current except by cranking the amplifiers until the floor begins to tremble?
