Rachika Nayar’s Heaven Come Crashing is an instrumental epic of desperate longing

Rachika Nayar 的《Heaven Come Crashing》：一场关于绝望渴望的器乐史诗

Two minutes and thirty seconds into the title track of Rachika Nayar’s Heaven Come Crashing, an absolutely massive drum and bass beat drops. As a fan of Nayar’s debut record Our Hands Against The Dusk, it caught me off guard. That album has no percussion on it at all. Heaven Comes Crashing is almost entirely drum-free, too. There are some rapid-fire mechanical hi-hats on the second track, “Tetramorph,” and the back half of track six, “Gayatri,” has what sounds like a snare buried deep in the mix. But it isn’t until track seven that Nayar delivers an unexpected drum explosion, before immediately retreating to the soothing wash of “Sleepless,” just one song later.

在 Rachika Nayar 的同名主打曲《Heaven Come Crashing》进行到两分三十秒时，一段极其震撼的鼓打贝斯（drum and bass）节奏骤然响起。作为 Nayar 首张专辑《Our Hands Against The Dusk》的乐迷，这让我感到措手不及。那张专辑完全没有打击乐成分，而《Heaven Come Crashing》也几乎全程无鼓。虽然第二首曲目《Tetramorph》中有一些快速的机械式踩镲（hi-hats），第六首《Gayatri》的后半段也隐约能听到深埋在混音里的军鼓声，但直到第七首，Nayar 才真正带来了一次意想不到的鼓点爆发，随后又在下一首《Sleepless》中迅速退回到舒缓的音浪之中。

Nayar’s unique brand of guitar-heavy ambient-adjacent music plays almost like a version of M83 from an alternate universe. One where instead of turning to ‘80s pop music for inspiration, Anthony Gonzalez mined his instrumental epics for every last drop of emotion. Heaven Comes Crashing is as emotionally heavy as the title would imply but uses surprisingly few words to get there. The only vocals come courtesy of Maria BC, who floats over the title track and the stunning album closer “Our Wretched Fate,” where she wordlessly belts out her laments.

Nayar 这种以吉他为主导、带有氛围音乐色彩的独特风格，听起来就像是平行宇宙里的 M83。在那个宇宙中，Anthony Gonzalez 不再从 80 年代流行音乐中汲取灵感，而是将他的器乐史诗挖掘到了情感的极致。《Heaven Come Crashing》正如其名，情感沉重，却出人意料地仅用了极少的歌词来表达。专辑中唯一的演唱来自 Maria BC，她的声音飘荡在同名主打曲和令人惊叹的收尾曲《Our Wretched Fate》中，以无词的吟唱宣泄着哀愁。

There are lyrics on “Heaven Come Crashing,” but they’re almost indecipherable as Maria BC whispers beneath an ocean of flailing guitar lines and sparkling drones: Is it morning? I don’t remember going to sleep How can we face the day Like this? You throw down your arms and count to see How deep it is

《Heaven Come Crashing》中确实有歌词，但当 Maria BC 在如海洋般翻涌的吉他线条和闪烁的无人机音效（drones）下低语时，这些歌词几乎无法辨认： 是早晨了吗？ 我不记得自己睡着了 我们怎么能这样 面对新的一天？ 你放下双臂，数着看 这深渊有多深

Instead of words, Nayar turns to heavily processed guitar, lonesome textures, and the occasional burst of trance chords to capture the desperate longing at the album’s core. But the album is also an indictment of the sort of abandon that often accompanies unbridled passion. It’s bookended by “Our Wretched Fantasy” and “Our Wretched Fate,” betraying a certain disgust for its own emotional recklessness. Track three isn’t “Death and Love”; it’s “Death and Limerence” — opting to spotlight unhealthy romantic obsession rather than fulfilling emotional partnership, through U2-esque guitar lines that eventually drown beneath heavily reverbed and out-of-tune tremolo-picked notes.

Nayar 没有依赖歌词，而是转向了经过深度处理的吉他音色、孤独的质感以及偶尔迸发的迷幻和弦，以此捕捉专辑核心那份绝望的渴望。但这张专辑同时也是对那种常伴随放纵激情的“自我沉沦”的控诉。专辑以《Our Wretched Fantasy》和《Our Wretched Fate》首尾呼应，流露出对自身情感鲁莽的某种厌恶。第三首曲目不是《Death and Love》，而是《Death and Limerence》（死亡与痴迷）——它选择聚焦于不健康的浪漫执念，而非圆满的情感伴侣关系，通过类似 U2 风格的吉他线条，最终将其淹没在带有重混响和走调的颤音拨弦声中。

That’s followed by the unease of “Nausea,” which builds from an unsteady drone to maximalist panic of ‘90s synths and one of the simplest and prettiest guitar melodies on the record. The ambient emo of “Promises” follows, leading into “Gayatri,” which ratchets up the energy and serves as a bridge to the explosive title track.

紧随其后的是令人不安的《Nausea》，它从不稳定的无人机音效逐渐演变成 90 年代合成器带来的极简主义恐慌，并伴随着整张专辑中最简单、最动听的吉他旋律之一。接着是带有氛围情绪摇滚色彩的《Promises》，随后引出《Gayatri》，它提升了能量，成为了通往那首爆发性主打曲的桥梁。

Rachika Nayar’s Heaven Comes Crashing is available on Bandcamp and most major streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Qobuz, and Deezer.

Rachika Nayar 的《Heaven Comes Crashing》现已在 Bandcamp 及各大主流流媒体平台上线，包括 Apple Music、Spotify、YouTube Music、Qobuz 和 Deezer。