The Noise Beneath the Roots

When I first heard mentalEscape’s Bizarre Behavior, I was walking through the empty streets of Niš at night, my headphones cranked just high enough to blur the border between the outside world and this album’s eerie, intimate universe. It hit me like a slow burn — not an explosion, but a quiet, smoldering collapse of everything I thought I knew about how Balkan identity could sound in 2025. And that’s what mentalEscape (aka M. Causevic) does best — he doesn’t ask you to listen; he dares you to disintegrate inside his vision.

The lead single, released in mid-April, is an uncompromising blend of nostalgia and dissonance. Balkan brass lines twist like smoke around distorted bass drops, while digital glitches and field recordings from Sarajevo cafes slip through the cracks like ghosts. This isn’t fusion for comfort. It’s a confrontation. You hear echoes of sevdah and turbo-folk, yes — but you also hear industrial noise, Berlin techno, and the isolation of postmodern youthhood baked into the production like an unspoken confession.

But what makes Bizarre Behavior more than just an aesthetic experiment is its emotional honesty. There’s a rawness here, a sort of sonic anxiety that feels painfully familiar. Causevic isn’t trying to impress anyone — he’s exorcising something. And in doing so, he reminds us that the Balkans are not only about what we celebrate, but also about what we bury. This is a record that doesn’t just remix tradition — it interrogates it. And for that reason alone, Bizarre Behavior is not just alternative. It’s necessary.