Coming in on the right side of breaking, Dutch producer-performer Sevdaliza intensifies her dark electronics with the help of rapper A$AP Ferg, a long-standing member of the highly influential New York-based A$AP Mob. Complete with their own comic book strip for ‘The Damaged Girl’, Sevdaliza narrates in her otherworldly rasp, “they never know what we were made of, heat couldn’t melt us, cold couldn’t waiver us,” backed by Ferg’s rapid fire rhymes and samples of Andy Stott’s ‘Damage’. This song is an intoxicating mix of UK-influenced grime, US-bred hip-hop and Internet-born and later mutated electronics, genres that struggled for a long time to reach a wider audience and to be recognised by the top-tier music industry. Even comic books, once perceived as childish, have been elevated in the art world. These are all fitting elements for ‘That Damaged Girl’, a song about remaining resilient against obstacles, knock-backs, negativity and the proverbial minefield that making music your living can often be. - HT