The brilliantly unsettling nature of Ophelia Moon in Avatar: Encryption Code is what perfectly captures our present day. This smooth, filmic song seems a caution in a beautiful package, a kind of cautionary story concerning artificial intelligence that is conveyed with the help of ethereal vocals that radiate above shimmering arpeggios and this tight cyberpunk beat. It is that type of contradiction that makes you think as you are in motion.
This is something truly immersive by the Philadelphia-based band, centred around primary songwriter Darren O. Moon and lead vocalist Maya Mikity. The lyrics are lovely in air, making what might otherwise be cold computerized themes so desperately human. You can sense the desire, the fear, the desire to stay human in the ever-growing technological world, that is interwoven with genuine emotion behind the electronic textures.
The manufacturing is completely impeccable without being sterile. There are layers of harmonies that build tastefully without losing the clarity and that propulsive low end makes everything move forward and with a purpose. The hook is a beauty that is catchy and easy to remember hours after listening to it, it is one that makes you hum along and still cogitating on its connotations of our relationship with technology.
What impresses me the most is that Ophelia Moon is able to explore such big mysteries as passion, suffering, rebirth, and recast them through the prism of technocracy and artificial intelligence. It is a philosophy of pop, content in form. It is not merely a simple superficial decoration of the cyberpunk aesthetic; it is a more fundamental questioning of what is involved in remaining human as we are all the more in touch with machines.
The song “Avatar: Encryption Code” is contemporary, slicked-out future-pop, which truly has a message. The reason is that it is not only catchy but it is posing questions, which we all should be thinking about after one play. Cinematic, thought-provoking and truly memorable work by a troupe that is not afraid to dive into the big themes.