DENNIS
SEGA BODEGA
The Big Issue Australia
Issue #7137 June 2024
By Olivia J. Bennett
Sega Bodega returns feverishly with his third, folkloric album Dennis, the product of a self-professed manic episode. We ride scattered highs with tracks like ‘Adulter8’, which fuse Bodega’s industrial, bass-heavy stylings with 8-bit melodies – a nod to the artist’s name and a broader feeling of insatiable yearning. Dancehall beats mix with chopped and screwed vocals, roller-coasting high and low in ‘Elk Skin’, before speeding into the hectic BPM and rambling lyricism of ‘Kepko’. Most impressive is ‘Tears & Sighs’, where Bodega’s deep voice convincingly pleads, “Give into me, give into me,” as a throbbing club beat builds. Suddenly, dropping into acoustic guitar, we’re pushed away by “Don’t talk to me, don’t even look at me”. Flinging between these opposites, Bodega blurs the line between nostalgia and fantasy, tradition and experimentation, ecstasy and misery to produce a beautifully tortured release. It’s only in the final track, ‘Coma Salv’, with its twinkling keys and soft resonance, that we find rest, sinking into an otherworld Bodega seems desperately striving to reach.