NETRVNNER – Fractured Veil

Alberta: Top 10 of 2021

by Christine Leonard

Sleek cyberpunk stylings that fluctuate between ethereal atmospheres and amplified emotions are the specialty of writer/producer/synthwave wizard Andrew Tyukasz. The invisible hand behind NETRVNNER’s symphonic interludes expertly generates static fields that breath and pulsate like living creatures. Moving across the icy barrens with the ease of a raven’s shadow, his masterfully poetic instrumental paintings are so radiant one requires snow goggles to gaze directly into them. Busting out of the pandemic holding pattern, the prolific grinder subsequently dropped the turbofied EP Nexus on September 28. 

Bo Burnham’s transcendent comedy special isn’t the only great piece of COVID-adjacent art titled Inside released this year. The indie-rock quintet’s latest opens and closes with the sounds of the 7pm clanging pots and pans that once heralded the essential workers, and many of the tracks find them grappling with introspective thoughts while trapped in a room – being stuck inside one’s own head being an even worse fate than the physical boundaries.