Xenoverse – Chizawa Q (2024) – Album Review

Album: Xenoverse

Artist: Chizawa Q

Label: R&S Records

Release Date: November 22, 2024

Bandcamp: https://randsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/xenoverse

One night I emerged from BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into a dead San Francisco financial district to be serenaded by a lone saxophone player.  The heady jazz riffs echoed off towering office buildings and swirled through the artificial twilight of security lights.  A performance for a sleeping city, and for those who come out at night.  

XENOVERSE feels like a portal back into that night.  Smooth saxophone riffs entice me into a soundscape that seems familiar.  Until it morphs.  And drops.  A muffled robot voice is telling me something.  Perhaps “Take the keys to the car”?  I’m not sure but it seems urgent.  I get in the car and start driving.  I pass by a party happening in a night market.  I see a crowd of ravers dancing.  Or are they aliens?  I go back to my apartment.  My food smiles up at me and jiggles in time to the beat.  

Hailing from another bay area, Chizawa Q of Tokyo is merging jazz, techno, and dnb into the soundtrack of the XENOVERSE: “a universe beyond imagination—a landscape that emerges unexpectedly from memories of a world that shouldn’t exist.” (Chizawa Q IG).  Collaborations with pianists Masaki Sakamoto and Slavomir Kowaleski infuse unusual textures and emotions into techno’s cold heart.  If our current reality isn’t surreal enough for you, psychedelic music videos from Infinite Vibes and Yuya Takeda offer a visual landscape for the album. 

 Released by legendary experimental music seekers R&S Records this album is a testament to genre-crossing, worldbuilding, and bold collaboration.  Fall through the portal into the XENOVERSE.  —- V. Rose  

Favorite Tracks:  Black Nebula, Beluga, Psychedelia