GENRE: Electronic
LABEL: Ternesc / XL
REVIEWED: 12 October, 2025
RATING: 8.1/10
SickElixir is a bruising, inventive leap from Jamie Roberts that trades tidy club-ready techno for something more jagged, visceral and singular. Released on XL/Ternesc, the record frames itself as a late-night, post-industrial dream: distorted vocals and mangled samples crawl over fractured percussion, while sudden melodic fragments sneak through like glimpses of sunlight in a concrete plaza. The album’s lead singles — most notably “NOS” — set the tone: short, violent statements that hit hard and refuse to let up.
Sonically, SickElixir pushes Blawan’s known taste for grime and modular dissonance into stranger territory. Tracks alternately feel like machines learning to dance or bodies learning to malfunction — glitchy, compressed voices become rhythmic instruments, and drums are treated as sculptural objects rather than steady anchors. The result is frequently unsettling but rarely aimless; Roberts’ arrangements hold a clear logic even when they’re at their most chaotic.
There are moments of surprising tenderness and pop craft tucked into the abrasion: “Rabbit Hole,” with guest Monstera Black, offers a hooky, almost human counterpoint to the record’s uglier textures, and brief melodic refrains break up the tension without announcing themselves. Those flashes make the darker passages feel intentionally framed rather than indulgent.
Critically, the album is being read as both a continuation and escalation of Blawan’s trajectory — more confrontational than Wet Will Always Dry, more narratively restless than a straightforward club LP. Reviewers note how the work channels grief, rage and black humor into sound, producing an experience that’s as emotionally raw as it is technically accomplished.
If you approach SickElixir expecting a conventional dance record you’ll be disarmed; if you welcome abrasive experimentation, it rewards repeat listens. It’s not always comfortable, but it’s compelling — an album that stakes claim to new, unsettling corners of contemporary electronic music.
