Symphonic Folktronica Break Metal: the Wonderful Chaos of Igorrr Jimmy Carlson
Some time during the summer of 2020, as I was sucking in the mind-numbing vapors of my YouTube recommended feed from my bed, I happened upon one of the strangest pieces of digital artistic expression that I had ever seen. It was the music video for “Very Noise,” a short track from a band called Igorrr. I was not prepared. As this barely cohesive tale of an amorphous, breakdancing flesh monster from outer space and his geriatric, motorcycle-riding nemesis unfolded before my eyes — and as an odd mixture of breakcore drums and thick chromatic riffage pounded my eardrums — I found myself moving from passing interest to deep fascination. After the flesh monster exploded in a giant fireball and the motorcycling hero rode off to meet its spaceship, I clicked on the link to the channel homepage, and I was done for. Over the ensuing months, I fell deeper and deeper into the Igorrr rabbit hole, turning one vapid click on a YouTube thumbnail into a passionate admiration for what I believe to be one of the most utterly creative artists to draw from the sounds and instrumentation of metal.
Photo: Marta Bogumila Nowak
Igorrr is the brainchild of Gautier Serre, a French producer, multi-instrumentalist, and livestock lover who seeks to create the purest possible artistic expression through his music. His sound is a bizarre stew of genres and styles that few would consider compatible, if not for the proof of concept that he provides. He lists many disparate influences — “Meshuggah, Cannibal Corpse, Domenicco Scarlatti, Aphex Twin, Portishead, Mr Bungle, Mayhem, Taraf de Haidouks, but I forget millions of others!” (interview with La Grosse Radio, 2015) — and he is not afraid to adopt every single one in a given track. This can make for an overwhelming listen: “Houmous,” for example, features death metal drumming, sax solos, screams, bass, choir, acoustic and electric guitar, and a cash register in just its first minute and ten seconds, all set above slamming accordion riffage. The brazen eclecticism of Igorrr’s music is astounding and gripping, but also potentially alienating. I was already accustomed to the abrasive sounds of extreme metal by the time I came across Igorrr, and even I had a hard time stomaching the relentless, grinding, disturbing, and rapidly changing nature of many of their compositions. The lack of attention to accessibility, lack of lyrics (almost all Igorrr vocals are sung or screamed in gibberish), and favor towards wild genre shifts that Serre adopts can sometimes feel like a meaningless joke, a silly form of weirdness worship.
No Igorrr song pretends to have any explicit meaning, but, over time, enough listens of their songs start to reveal a pattern, a consistency within the chaos. Igorrr seems to express a consistent flavor of meaninglessness, if you will. There’s just a sort of spirit of joy mixed with despair, sublime divinity mixed with earthly filth, and above all a sort of blissful ignorance of it all. If you are listening to an Igorrr song, you will know. The sophistication of the baroque sounds, the aggression and mania of the metal elements, the illogical chaos of the electronic effects and breakbeats, and the simple, inebriated-ish, goofy feel of the gypsy music elements (not to mention the little flourishes sprinkled around from other genres) all blend together into a sound that is unmistakably Igorrr. In my opinion, Serre is somehow able to make this style work well in every song. Each one goes about it differently, but I would not say that Igorrr really has any songs that are bad, or that break its style. This level of consistency amid insane variability is reflective of an unwavering devotion to a single creative philosophy. The beauty to Igorrr’s music is that no matter which insane direction it may take, its path is always guided by NF011 | 13
