reviews / 2021

WOS - Oscuro éxtasis

Name: WOS – Oscuro éxtasis
Item: Oscuro éxtasis
Rating: 8.5
Author: Federico Romagnoli

2021 (Doguito records)

cloud rap, rap-rock

by Federico Romagnoli

8.5

Argentine rapper Wos, born Valentín Oliva and already reviewed last year on OndaRock with the EP “Tres puntos suspensivos”.

The new album picks up right where those ten minutes of music left off: lyrics exploring the author's inner balance with above-average analytical skill, and a complex, layered sound with a nocturnal atmosphere, far removed from any concessions to chart-friendly hip hop, put together by his trusted producer Facundo Yalve, aka Evlay.

What's striking about Wos's lyrics is their poetic quality: his verses are structured like literary compositions, free from rap stereotypes. He doesn't namedrop luxury brands, doesn't boast about drug use, doesn't flaunt easy money or sexual conquests, doesn't resort to random comparisons with famous people, doesn't mangle his own language by clipping words or overusing slang: and while it's true that these traits can be found in other hip hop output, it's also true that they usually keep an artist from reaching a mainstream audience. Wos has managed to overcome this limit, as shown by the massive following he's gained at home.

All the songs on the tracklist follow the precepts outlined above; take for example the lyrics of "Gato negro":

Lo farò a modo mio, il mio cuore urlando attraversa il confine

e la ragione impara a colpire il sacco a pera.

Cosa faremo se inizia la sparatoria

e sono in pochi a evitare il ‘si salvi chi può’?

Con la penna sul sangue mi tatuo, disciolgo lo status quo,

sembro un gufo, per favore, guarda bene come suppuro.

I love climbing trees, climbing marble,

the warmth that seeps in at the edges.

How about it? Let's go get drunk,

so that even angels come down from the sky when thirst sets in.

That's why today I go down searching for water in the desert,

from the plain to the heights of concrete,

I pass from absolute noise to the silence of the grave

not knowing if I live in paradise or am passing through a cemetery.

The eyes that see me hide from me,

sarà maledetto il mio nome,

I mustn't be a man anymore, what will I have turned into?

I'm a black cat, I was far away and tired of the body,

stubbornly I insist on kissing my hell,

I sweat out the past and that's why I don't sleep

This formal refinement isn't something gained in the shift from Spanish to Italian, but is already present in the original version: Wos is about as close to poetry - in the classical, not postmodern, sense of the term - as rap currently gets.

Another winning element is his voice, remarkably supple: ethereal in the more suspended moments, clean and pitch-perfect in the melodic passages (with no need for autotune), shrill and hammering during the aggressive sections - so capable of shifting in tone and delivery that it seems to come from different rappers depending on the track, sometimes even within the same one.

Evlay tailors a series of flawless beats around him: the majestic industrial rock of “Buitres”, the percussive hip hop of “Culpa” (with Ricardo Mollo, a veteran of Argentine rock, lending his voice for a handful of lines and launching into an epic guitar solo at the finale), the effects-laden guitars, chillwave echoes and reversed tapes of “Gato negro”, the dark rap metal of “Que se mejoren”, the downtempo crackling samples of “Lleno de zafiros”, the martial, symphonic art pop of “Mugre”.

Listening to “Pared de cristal” you'd swear the two were ready to put out a dream pop album. The symbiosis with the lyrics is total too:

Parete di cristallo, pioggia sul petto e sul parietale,

vedendo il tuo viso come una spirale,

normale, tutto è normale

e sto solo sentendo il piacere, cambiando,

solo pensando di vedere di nuovo, amando.

Sì, solo un piumaggio e un vestito di pelliccia e la tua voce mi coprono,

ho portato il mio dio, nel caso in cui entrambi perdessimo.

L’aria è così densa che non riesco neanche a respirare,

cerco nell’aria un altro bacio o qualcosa di casuale,

forse non troverò più questa sottigliezza

o il modo di rimuovermi la corteccia

Only on a handful of occasions does the shadowy mood that runs through the record as a common thread let up: the electronic funk of “Cambiando la piel”, the pop punk of “Niño gordo flaco”, which quotes “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim, and “Convoy jarana”, where voice and guitars are repeatedly distorted, emitting the most bizarre sounds. These are glimmers of light that nonetheless never abandon the reflective, self-aware nature of the lyrics.

Overall, the album lands somewhere between the most experimental rap rock and cloud rap, revealing an artist in full command of his expressive powers, whether he's baring his claws or painting dreamlike landscapes.

Ride the wave of great music

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04/11/2021

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Federico Romagnoli, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition