ALBUM REVIEW: Maria Uzor – Fantasyland

Hey Buffalo Records

Released: 03.09.26

Steering operations from her Norwich enclave, Maria Uzor’s sophomore long player is a passionate combination of edgy electronics with an urbanite soulful heart excited by the spirit of rave, techno and punk, it’s wrapped up, tense, quivering and agitated. Album opener Digital Error throbs with an erratic clarion call of bleeps and a driving bass rumble, bubbling with arpeggios and breathy utterances that leads us to a cathartic expression of potential freedom at full velocity, it’s a striking starter. By contrast is the unnerving following track Popcorn with delicious innocence it becomes a descent into a dark labyrinth of delusion filled with dissonance and anxiety – Look Out! Does it lead us to a false dawn?

As a whole this collection of tracks is a classy follow up to what was a stunning first album Soft Cuts back in 2023, throughout there is an interweaving of dark and light, perfectly mirrored in often delicate musicianship that is subtle yet has an underlying menace at its soul. The title track Fantasyland exemplifies these contrasts impeccably with its combination of monotone vocals, angelic drift and unsettling danceable disruption urging you, moving you along to its beating humanity.

These are tracks of intriguing complexity, musically and lyrically, there are seductive layers that both delight and signal distaste with a world that we should be able to change but its hard, escapism and fantasy are a release, but listener beware, there be demons – do not disturb!