7/10

After a long gestation marked by personal upheaval and artistic evolution, BOOMVISION emerges with 'ARCADE', a debut solo album that feels like a manifesto in sound and vision. The record fuses glitchy electronics, punk energy, and cinematic grandeur, all filtered through the lens of queer identity and personal mythology.

At the heart of the collection is 'RYU', a brooding, emotionally raw centrepiece that encapsulates the album’s ethos.. Here, the artist captures the dissonance of desire and conscience, transforming a personal rupture into an anthem of self-assertion. It’s a theme that threads through the album, which documents both the grief of an ending and the exhilaration of self-liberation during their journey of coming out as non-binary. Each track is named after a Street Fighter character, an inspired choice that lends archetypal weight to deeply intimate narratives, from 'CHUN LI’s resilient defiance to 'HADOUKEN’s collective revolt against injustice.

Throughout the release, 'ARCADE' explores a thrilling collision of DIY punk grit and high-concept electronic textures. Jagged synths, glitch-laden samples, and distorted vocal treatments coexist with lush melodic passages, producing a sound that is both raw and mythic. Tracks ebb and flow between personal introspection and collective resonance, particularly in 'HADOUKEN', which incorporates recordings from George Floyd protests to tie personal liberation to global movements for justice.

'ARCADE' sits as a statement of identity, resistance, and the alchemy of personal and collective transformation. BOOMVISION has delivered a debut that is as emotionally intense as it is sonically adventurous, a record that demands attention as an immersive, myth-making experience.