Cerebral displacement. That’s the best way I can describe the experience of listening to 100%WET, the debut album self-titled from Copenhagen-based duo Jakob Birch and Casper Munns. This record is overwhelming. A blur of breakbeats, walls of reverb-soaked guitar, and glitchy, echoing vocals crash over the listener in relentless succession.

The band calls their sound hypergaze, a genre-splicing hybrid that pulls from shoegaze’s gauzy textures, the rhythmic urgency of drum’n’bass, and the glossy weirdness of hyperpop. It works, at times, most notably on “Two Packs of Red Apples,” which opens with soft panning effects and airy female vocals that slowly build into something more turbulent. There’s a clear sense of intention behind the layering, and for a moment, the track offers a feeling of depth and curiosity before being swallowed by the noise.

“Leave It” is another standout in that regard. A distorted guitar riff lays the foundation, while a female voice lingers in the background—“I know everything about you”—is delivered like a memory half-remembered. It’s dizzying in a way that’s almost cinematic. Think of those dimension-warping sequences from Everything Everywhere All At Once, where time folds in on itself. This effect plays out across the album, especially during the tail end of “Lost Myself,” which crescendos into a rip current, one I was desperately trying to escape.

But for all its ambition, the record often feels weighed down by its own aesthetic. “Looking In From the Outside” and “Re-Emerging” rely heavily on repetition—both musically and lyrically. Phrases like “I cannot sleep without” and “I don’t know how to connect” loop so many times that they lose meaning. The heavy layering and absence of dynamic space can be exhausting. There is little time to breathe throughout the album.

That’s not to say the duo isn’t trying new things. Ether stands out for its slightly more restrained approach, and “Carat” veers closer to experimental pop, offering a bit of lightness. But taken as a whole, 100%WET is dense—sometimes impressively so, other times oppressively.

If you're a fan of maximalist experimentation and genre fusion, this might be a trip worth taking. Personally, I was ready to come up for air.

Order 100%WET HERE