SASAMI: Squeeze | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Sasami Ashworth’s second studio album Squeeze is a brutal and honest exploration of not only a wide scope of feelings and frustrations, but also a journey through genre. From nu-metal to folk-rock to neo-classical, SASAMI uses her versatility as a performer and composer to fully expand on the themes of each individual track as well as create an overarching tour of human emotion and complicated self-conflicting subjects.

The album’s artwork, designed by Andrew Thomas Huang and Rin Kim, is grounded in Japanese folk tales and horror, both elements that, if you'll forgive me, snake through much of her music. The cover depicts a nure-onna, literally ‘wet woman’; a vampiric being with the head of a woman and body of a snake who is said to lure victims with a bundle of rocks that resembles a baby. If they discard the child, the nure-onna kills them. The feminine, vicious and powerful energy of the deity inspired Sasami to incorporate a dichotomy of soundscapes into Squeeze.

For this reason, it’s difficult to pin down sonic influences, but overall the album is reminiscent of Fiona Apple, Björk and Faye Webster, with a clear nod to Sasami’s background in classical composition. There’s a huge number of contributors on Squeeze as well, including Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren, London-based band No Home and Barishi and others. With each artist’s expertise in their respective field, every new feature brings something different and exciting to the work, furthering that feeling of a journey through genre. Stand outs include the high energy opener Skin a Rat with its layered and distorted vocals and jarring metre changes, taking influence from math metal with Verbeuren’s aforementioned drumming stylings.

Feminine Water Turmoil, the album’s only fully instrumental track, features an eerie string quartet backed with distorted static chords. The undulating melody twists and transforms before dissipating into the final song on the LP, Not a Love Song. The transition is so smooth you wouldn’t notice where one piece ends and the next begins, if not for the lilting harmonics before Sasami’s vocals return with a Celtic melody. Joined by jazz drummer Jay Bellerose, this is an excellent album closer. It evokes a similar feeling to the early works of Mitski with its simple phrasing and poetic, almost narrative lyrics over the top of a cinematic instrumental.

Sasami’s Squeeze is an incredibly well-conceived and structured collection of work. Each element -from the artwork to the artists involved with every song- has clear purpose and inspiration. With industry expertise and collaborations from incredibly diverse backgrounds, Squeeze never strays from its intent: naturally flowing from one soundscape to the next, bringing the listener on an emotionally charged, sonically unique journey.

- Alison Paris.