This is an album travelling through seasons in your mind. Its as close to my final form as Ive known, Ikonika aka Sara Chen says, describing in evolutionary Pokémon terms, their Sad and Sexy new album. With SAD, they take the reins as producer, songwriter, and singer for the first time, SAD marks a distinctive development from their past as a producer. Its Ikonika, transformed, intimate and of course beautifully made – with their sultry, unvarnished vocals directing the journey across an arc of ten tracks. An album for pop lovers and club music lovers alike. At a crossroads a few years back, both personally as a new parent, and with their future in music, Ikonika stepped into the hot light of the frontstage, picking up the mic to start singing and performing their own lyrics. Simultaneously, they reckoned with being queer and trans in public life and its reverberations: finding my voice without fear speaking first as Sara shares. The goal became to be undeniable, celebrated and rewarded. The albums airy production reflects the music they DJ and enjoy; theres credit to a plethora of African electronic music on the album. Sara is half Egyptian and tracks such as WHATCHUREALLYWANT feature rhythms that their long ago dad taught them on the Egyptian tabla, carried over and spoken into other hand drums such as the djembe. A log drum preset on a DX7 cartridge used for their early records, became a prelude to their later interest in Amapiano culminating in an early 80s-ish wedding music sound – fiddly solos, overlays and trills. Through their close-knit circle of dancing queers too, Ikonika became inspired by more music of South Africa; Gqom and Bacardi. Ikonika got pen and paper out with interdisciplinary artist and writer Tice Cin to add further nuance to the narrative world of SAD. Cin finishes SAD on Make It Better, barring in her North London vernacular, as the only vocal guest on the album. Ikonika was encouraged by Tice to see SAD from a writers point of view, taking the listener into SAD WORLD. Ikonika weaves a storyline into the project, that begins on a sloshing train and ends on a stolen Lime bike. Whatsmore In light of a recent diagnosis of Autism (which Sara first clocked through videos on socials), every lyric is towards activating an understanding of self. Living post-diagnosis has offered the direct clarity that so many live without and has shifted Saras life. Enjoy this new adventure into Ikonikas world, more intimate than ever before.