Lili Refrain’s fifth release ‘Mana’ was an interesting proposition. The record’s nine compositions drew influence from a variety of styles. The opening couplet (‘Ki’/‘Kokyu’) set a fairly cold mood by mixing light drone with choral vocals; ‘Eikyou’ featured strong, soaring vocal lines against heavy tribal influenced rhythms; the much darker ‘Ichor’ shared a vocal mantra shifting between the gothic and operatic, augmented by orchestral sounds via heavy synth work, only allowing finger cymbals to bring any lightness to the piece. Better still, and slightly more accessible without shifting too far away from Refrain’s sense of the artistic, ‘Ahi Tapu’ occasionally sounded like early eighties Tangerine Dream fused with a Brad Fidel film score, topped with whispering Japanese vocals, and latterly another neo-operatic melody that showed Refrain in possession of a huge voice.

Four years on, ‘Nagalite’ feels a little more pared down. Not because Lili Refrain has scaled things back artistically – those who’ve previously found a love for prior works will certainly glean a lot of enjoyment from the material here. The slightly more restrained feel comes from a decision to present a something that clocks in at a fair bit shorter, making the material a little more digestible.

‘Extruvia’ sets an immediately interesting tone when Lili shares a world of wordless vocals over a blanket of very 80s sounding synths. The music, although minimalist in approach, actually sounds huge, and the way the melodic sounds are occasionally punctured by beats provides a relative continuation from the previous release. Despite allowing those synths plenty of space within the final arrangement, its Lili who’s the obvious star here, and her huge, operatic tones emerge from the speakers with a genuine ease, despite the melody requiring her to put in a huge amount of work.

‘Nagal’ is more accessible than a lot of her past recordings, and has almost nothing in common with the material on ‘Mana’. The opening beats set a superb and rather steady rhythm in place, over which an acoustic guitar weaves an Arabic inspired rhythm. This immediately sounds like something that should score the end credits of a film. From there, the melodies grow to introduce pulsing synth elements that sound more like a manipulated elastic band than anything Vangelis or Tangerine Dream inspired – although the ghosts of the latter’s work from ‘Risky Business’ can be heard underscoring the latter part of this performance – and eventually Refrain arrives with a huge soaring vocal sharing a Sanskrit lyric. Although this might seem a little too self-indulgent, it actually works, and the influence from the much-missed Ofra Haza colours everything brilliantly. In the second part of this seven minute soundscape, everything takes a rockier turn, with the help of a doom metal riff, and multi-layered guitar work that brings a melodic rock tone to the fore, with busy leads overlaying a solid rhythm. The fusion of styles here is brilliant, and although this is unlikely to sit naturally with material from other bands and genres, as a part of ‘Nagalite’ it sounds superb.

‘Coil’ changes the mood, yet again, to introduce bleeping synth sounds and pulsebeats which fall closer to very accessible synth pop, but at the point where you might be wondering if Refrain is about to take an uncharacteristically commercial turn, a second synth arrives to share a wavering melody which, again, sounds as if its drawn straight from a 1980s film score. The way the earlier morse-like notes continue to convey a huge melody really helps to carry everything forward, until somewhere near the three minute mark, when sharper keys drop in with a slightly Japanese sounding melody, shared in a manner which, again, sounds like a throwback to early/mid 80s Tangerine Dream. With deeper drones and tribal drumming arriving a little later to keep everything feeling varied and another wordless vocal occasionally rising within the rear of the arrangement, this recording has a lot of layers, yet never feels cluttered. ‘Coil’ is challenged by ‘Naga’ for this release’s best track, but they’re so different, it seems unfair to compare. However, it is more than fair to say that ‘Coil’ is the ideal track for the first time listener.

Although everything here is enjoyable, in many ways, it feels as if the material steadily builds towards the epic ‘Lithos’ which takes up the whole of the record’s second side. The twelve minute venture is peak Refrain, moving from a slow drone into a deeper drone and back again, before setting up a contrast between deep, ominous tones and light, bell-like keys, and moving into another blanket of soundtrack inspired melodies and absolutely haunting vocals. Those who’ve already spent time with Refrain will undoubtedly hear a few familiar touchstones, but any familiarity never comes across as feeling in any way lazy. This is one of those arrangements that’s never in a rush. In turn, it expects its audience to take a similarly casual approach and let the sounds wash over them.

Part synth drone, part soundtrack inspired, part world music, part doom-laden rock, ‘Nagalite’ covers many moods in approximately half an hour. The playing time may be short, but the listening rewards can be much bigger. Many listeners will be expected to put in some hard yards to get the very best from this material, but it’s certainly worth the effort. It seems almost a duty to say that this release won’t be for everyone, but those who can find a way in will certainly find it very enjoyable.

February 2026