i DECiDE retains the Spanish/Persian flavour, cyberpunk feel of previous empress piru releases, while also taking on a more urgent, in-the-present, grittier edge.
Opener ‘Ni una meanos !’ would sound perfectly at home in a Tarantino movie, particularly if he ever decided to make one centred on crazed prowling cats.
A song calling out the patriarchy, ‘Catcall’ covers every possible base: from sounding cat-like; to being a feminist rally cry; to a representation of the actuality of being female that men have tried to define in singular terms, roles and social stereo types. In its cat moments the track is light, playful; while when a rally cry it drives forward with an abundance of determination, strength and power.
Again in ‘RACHEL against the machine’ empress piru manage to combine sound and lyrical content sublimely: the sound machine-like but somehow plodding, not running as it should, while lyrically it takes to task the idea of peace and all being well while people are dying in the sea trying to get from somewhere they don’t want to be.
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‘Krossi’ is a cat out on the prowl through city streets where eerie smoke swirls lazily from street-hole covers; car headlights occasionally catch it in beams as it skulks along close to walls and trash cans, eventually jumping up on one and then onto the wall above where it sits and cleans a paw.
Title track ‘I decide’ is joyously punk and furiously feminist. The song stands as a towering inferno against women being told what to do and, for that matter, needing men at all; a firestorm of passion, it demands to be heard; and being the raucous rock ‘n’ roll at its best that it is—picking the listener up in its heat and carrying them along awestruck for its duration—so it should!
i DECiDE has appropriately been released on the 14th of June 2024 to coincide with the Feminist Strike taking in place in Switzerland; an action that aims to address the imbalance in both women’s wages and pensions. (link below).
My thanks to empress piru for the opportunity to review this incredible album!
empress piru are:
- janine f.k.: voc, synth
- martine: guitare, backing voc
- isa: bass
- sati: bass
- mel: drums
Links:
Thanks for reading 🙂
N. P. Ryan
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