In music, as with everything, there will always be a push for ‘more.’ The quest to take music somewhere it’s never been before inevitably leads to a record like Jane Remover’s newest project ‘Revengeseekerz,’ which is clearly aiming to be one of the most layered, dense and overstimulating records of the year— by and large, it succeeds. In theory, this ultra-maximalist take on pop and EDM should be the perfect recipe for an incoherent mess of an album: how many records have we already bashed this year for being overproduced? The magic of ‘Revengeseekerz’ is that the album’s digital aesthetic defines but does not consume a host of, mostly, well-curated dance tracks, elevating each one into a hyperpop frenzy for the modern age.

‘Revengeseekerz’ is undoubtedly characterised, first and foremost, by its wild, balls-to-the-wall aesthetic choices (and no, we aren’t talking about the flaming sword on the cover). Jane Remover has pushed EDM production to its absolute limits here, flooding the record with layer after layer after layer of noise. Even a less intense track like ‘Dreamflasher’ is still coupled with rumbling 808s that’ll put even the highest-grade audio equipment to the test: as the song progresses, Remover only pushes its sound inclusions further and further, ending the track in a blur of harsh distortion and trap beats. There’s nothing naturalistic to be found here: ‘Revengeseekerz’ commits fully to its hyper-modern style, seeping every vocal layer in copious amounts of pitch correction and post-processing and running with these ideas as far as the eye can see. These bold, unconventional choices are sure to either make or break a listener’s experience, and we can’t blame anyone for finding a cut like Professional Vengeance— which grinds itself down into a digital cacophony by the end— off-putting. For fans of the genre though, there’s no denying just how impactful and overwhelming Jane Remover’s efforts can be.

Admittedly, the blown-out tones don’t always serve their respective songs, and we’d be lying to call the experiments Jane Remover is undertaking here a complete success. Opening cut ‘TWICE REMOVED’ isn’t the most effective introduction to the extreme ideas the record wants to explore, as the cut’s droning 808s and disparate synth parts feel disconnected from the fairly bland and static writing at the song’s core— the track’s refrain of “grim reaper on my *ss” hangs awkwardly next to the musical chaos, starting the album off on arguably its weakest note. The marriage between the style and substance of ‘Revengeseekerz’ isn’t always a happy one— if anything, the album’s weakest moments really expose how the entire project rests on a knife edge, constantly threatening to step into ‘overly zealous’ territory. ‘Star people’ illustrates this point well as the more low-key atmosphere that should define the track is crushed beneath waves of sound.

When the two side of the album fuse successfully though (as they do a shocking amount of the time), the result is one of the most energetic, pounding and unapologetically massive records of the year so far. ‘Experimental Skin’ houses some of the most infectious melodies on the entire record, with its refrain of “you don’t even know what you do to me” pairing perfectly with the track’s open, spacious sound design: really though, we’ll mostly be returning for its stunning climax, which amps itself up to into the ultimate rave soundtrack. The following ‘angels in camo,’ conversely, demonstrates Jane Remover’s versatility excellently as the track’s explorations of trap go off without a hitch (though no trap music we’ve ever heard dares to be this humongous).

The majority of cuts throughout ‘Revengeseekerz’ simply wind up sounding like some of the craziest EDM out there, though there’s certainly a tonne of well-constructed songwriting underneath the noise. ‘Dancing with your eyes closed’ builds a dance hit out of a fairly simple series of synth arpeggios and repetitions of “promise, I like it like that” that only grow more infectious as the song gallops forth. Similar praise is deserved of songs like ‘Fadeoutz’ and ‘JRJRJR,’ which both blend feverish hyperpop elements into smartly-constructed compositions: though a number of these cuts could have been more easy-going moments on the record, they’re elevated by the chaos in a way that ‘Star people’ simply isn’t.

It remains to be seen just how much further EDM can be pushed before blowing all the speakers across the globe: there must be a point where the 808s are too ballsy and the drum loops too disorienting. ‘Revengeseekerz’ walks right up to that line, acting as a new benchmark release for experimental electronic music. We’re honestly baffled that a musical concept as ill-fated as this has turned out so spectacularly: between the album’s well-executed production and understandable writing, there’s a shocking amount to love here. Future copycats are sure to take all the wrong ideas from Jane Remover and ruin the good name of extreme EDM— that doesn’t change the fact that ‘Revengeseekerz’ is, for the most part, thrilling.