“Erupt, Transform, Amaze!” — Athens Dark Synth Duo Incirrina Ignite the Self in Video for “Mutate”

I stamp on the vulgar borders

Ignition Wardrobe War

Behold you faceless orders

Ι glow down to my core 

Athens-based dark electronic/minimal synth duo Incirrina take the idea of self-reinvention out of the seminar room and drag it into the club with Mutate, where identity gets rewritten the proper way: through movement, nerve, costume, chemistry, and the sudden blessed shock of seeing yourself from a new angle.

What the duo are after here is plain in the best sense. Mutate is “the celebration of self expression, the overcoming of conformity, the playful search of personal and social identity.” Sure, those are some big stakes, but the song opens like a dare thrown across the dance floor and carries them with real force instead of puffed-up importance. The beat has that lean, nocturnal drive that minimal synth does so well, while the arrangement keeps tightening and opening like a body trying out fresh language. There is pleasure in it, some bite too, and the whole thing gives off the charge of a person trying on a truer self and liking the fit.

Self-construction is never some sterile philosophical exercise. It is social. It is physical. It happens in public sometimes, under lights, among strangers and future friends, with the old codes still barking from the curb. Incirina’s description of the track gets to the heart of it: “A night out becomes the occasion to explore one’s own individuality and uniqueness. There is no pretentious humility, just raw energy on the dance floor. Revelation: we have the right to reconstruct ourselves and also to choose our peers. Transformation and self confirmation is a reality.”

Directed by Alexis Falantas and Fani Maria Chatzi, the video for Mutate keeps the concept clean and sharp. “The protagonist is presented with a choice: holding on to familiarity or indulging his curiosity, opening a door to self-rediscovery. From idly letting days pass by to letting go.”

Beautifully simple, and smart enough to leave room for the viewer’s own history to creep in. A door opens, a life tilts, and suddenly habit looks like a bad landlord.

Watch the video for “Mutate” below:

Together with the single, Incirrina have put their third album Trace up for preorder, and if Mutate points the way forward, then they are making a record about change from the standpoint of hard-earned wisdom. “We celebrate diversity, we work together,” they say. “Not artists but against the odds, artisans and friends. We make music, we share it and reinvent ourselves.”

That’s the spirit, and here it comes with style, muscle, and a little midnight magic.

The album, out 29 May, will be available in two LP versions (black and crystal clear), on CD, a limited cassette and in digital format. Listen to Trace below and pre-order the album here.

Catch Incirrina live:

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