If you’ve been hitting underground rock and electronic shows over the last two years, you’ve probably heard and seen Monika Khot playing her reflective chrome guitar for both the cerebral noise-rock group Zen Mother and her artfully apocalyptic, drone-based solo project Nordra. In both contexts, she has a sound that makes a permanent impression.
At this year’s Corridor Fest at the Georgetown Steam Plant, Nordra played music of calamitous grandeur and grotesque beauty, fueled by thanatoptic-sounding drones, doomy, Demdike Stare–like atmospheres, and beats that hit like deathblows. Last October, she recorded a postindustrial electronic score for the Pylon II dance performance at King Street Station, conjuring overwhelming dystopian sensations. Passages of disturbing tranquility alternated between moments of crushing claustrophobia, as Nordra masterfully contoured the music’s dynamics and textures to fit Pylon II‘s surveillance-paranoia theme. Adding synthesizers and foundation-shuddering techno beats to her palette, Nordra forged an unforgettable, visceral soundtrack that overshadowed the excellent dancers.
