EP Review Nuha Ruby Ra - Machine Like Me

Growling into life with menacing vocals and bass drones, Nuha Ruby Ra wastes no time here in making herself heard. ‘My Voice’ is a call to arms - an establishment of who she is, what she’s capable of and exactly what she has in store for the rest of this six-track EP. ‘Machine Like Me’ is an apt title for the thrumming beast that Nuha Ruby Ra unleashes. It hums with a driven, relentless need to express a quiet, confident energy that emerges with each crawling track. It’s a noisy, explosive collection, but one embarked upon with composure and a winking calmness. It’s Nuha that exists in the belly of this dragon that she creates - swirling, twisting, breathing a ferocious fire that rushes through each snarling moment. ‘Slicer’, in all its chainsaw-wielding glory, is perhaps a summation of what is at the EP’s heart, as barbed-wire witticisms and shapeshifting vocals dominate. It’s vicious but in an eerie, disorienting way. Elsewhere, ‘Rise’ embraces the loudness, fizzing with life, distorted and sparking against Nuha’s steady vocals, before reaching a formidable point where all gives way to a howling pursuit of release. A desperate and determined clamber to the top, with all the pain of that journey on full display, by the time ‘Machine Like Me’ draws to an end, it feels like Nuha Ruby Ra is able to secure that relief. Scratches and all, the choral closing statements of ‘You Never Know’ are a final mocking goodbye. With her latest release, Nuha Ruby Ra paints a mighty figure.