Zaire by Martel: Album Review

by admin October 18, 2025

October 18, 2025

Montenegro-born multidisciplinary artist Martel Vladimiroff makes a thunderous statement with Zaire, a politically charged record arriving July 23, 2025. Known for his work across architecture, film, and game design, Martel channels his “neo-renaissance” approach into an unconventional and unnerving record. Inspired by his travels across Africa and produced through a mix of analog, digital, and Soviet-era gear, Zaire is an aural descent into the Congo Rainforest, both its living soundscape and its wounds. Merging tribal percussion, field recordings, and dense techno textures, the album is a ritual and a protest rolled into one.

The title track, “Zaire,” immediately sets the tone with crackling static and the buzz of something like rain folding toward the sound of hurried, distant voices rushing through and echoing across the forest, while voices muffled hit our ears up close, as if they are observing everything. In the meantime, a sharp and feverish electronic pulse has started up. The beat hits like a heartbeat under siege, while the chaos of human cries melts into something ritualistic, almost trance-inducing. By the end, as the rain and fire fade, you’re left with an unsettling silence, like a mirror to the desolation Martel is calling out.

“Witch Doctor” dives deeper into the album’s hypnotic darkness. The track opens with a buzz of crickets and a rattling crackle, evoking jungle ambiance and technological decay. Then comes the haunting pulse, ominous and alive. Tribal rhythms clash with mechanical drones, fusing the primal and the modern until the line between ceremony and conflict disappears. It’s a sonic exorcism, both spiritual and industrial.

“Lumumba” turns the political subtext explicit. The track layers muffled political chatter and documentary fragments over a low, menacing hum. As the voices sharpen, at one point, I can somewhat hear leaders discussing casualties like statistics, as the music swells into a chilling indictment of power and colonial residue.

With Zaire, Martel stages an informative auditory confrontation through the sounds of what has been colonised and killed over time. It’s brutal, poetic, and necessary, demanding you not just listen, but reckon.