Track-by-Track: Falooda Break Down Their Latest Album, ‘Recipe for Concussion’

As a unit, Falooda are not interested in minding their own business. They have ideas and viewpoints, and they’re happy to share them with whoever is interested. The band re-emerged earlier this month with the release of their debut full-length album Recipe for Concussion. Coming in at a brisk 27 minutes in length, the Athens band wastes no time in saying what they want to say. There are some primary thematic components to this record, primarily existential concerns like technological authoritarianism, personal loss, and emotional growth in the modern world. Despite the heavy topics, the album maintains a humorous undertone throughout, which helps lighten the mood. This is balanced well with the directness of the band and the statements they are looking to make.

The themes covered on Recipe for Concussion are a nice extension of Falooda’s EP Demo 2024. Those songs dealt head-on with digital dystopia, social angst, injustice, personal loss, and condemning war. There is still room within their music for personal stories. But the band members acknowledge that in this day and age, so many things shape a person and their personality. Consequently, they have decided that it is of crucial importance to address sociopolitical issues. For a relatively new band, Falooda demonstrates an impressive level of fearlessness.

A couple of years ago, Falooda joined us for a Track-by-Track rundown of their Demo 2024 EP. We are happy to be joined again by lead singer Loverman for a Track-by-Track rundown of Recipe for Concussion.

1. “Bottleneck”

“‘Bottleneck’ was conceived in a single take—it just popped up, so to speak. The climax feels like an explosion, and the lyrics mirror that intensity, as they address the capacity of an application or computer system being constrained by a single component—much like the narrow neck of a bottle restricting the overall flow of water.”

2. “Orizuru 折鶴”

“The song tells the story of Sadako Sasaki, the girl who became the symbol of innocent people who lost their lives due to the atomic bomb. Sadako was two years old when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima on the 6th of August 1945. Neither she nor her family died as a result of the explosion, but in January 1955, she was diagnosed with leukemia. She set herself a goal of folding 1,000 paper cranes, which, according to the legend, would grant the folder a wish. Sadako fell short of her goal, having folded only 644 before her death at 12 years of age.

“Her friends completed the remaining 356 paper cranes and buried them all with her. At the same time, they published all of her letters so the world would know her wish for world peace.

“On the bottom of her monument, it’s written: ‘This is our cry, this is our prayer: for building peace in the world.’”

Falooda “Orizuru” single artwork

3. “Boolean Religion”

“The song explores the fusion of technology and religion, with technology being worshipped as such—its divinity translated into a binary language of ones and zeros for the machine. The worshippers become so obsessed with it that they fail to realize it is slowly destroying them.”

4. “Captcha”

“It explores the frustration and angst that arise when people attempt to complete online transactions, and how security systems construct a wall of CAPTCHAs—a barrier between the user, the buyer, and the desired item waiting to be revealed behind the screen… or perhaps not, in case the user is not human after all.”

5. “The Synthetic Age”

“This track is based on the short animated film of the same title, directed by Dimitris Armenakis. It explores the angst of living in an age defined by plastic and municipal waste, as the film examines how beings struggle to survive mentally, physically, and psychologically.”

Falooda ‘Demo 2024’ album artwork

6. “Epileptic Bus”

“The idea behind the lyrics lies behind a story told by the drummer of the band, Luku Luku Miu Miu. In his own words, one day while riding the bus in Athens, a woman had an epileptic attack and fell down. The song tries to capture the craziness of the Athenian transport network system.”

7. “Uncensored”

“The track opens with a poetic ‘explosion’ by Satyr Tyrant, culminating in the very moment of being censored and leading into the drum intro of ‘Uncensored.’ The song addresses digital censorship in the age of social media, as well as the use of digital propaganda by politicians to cover up war crimes.”

8. “Existential Corrosion”

“Told from the perspective of a robot undergoing a physical breakdown, the track questions whether this deterioration also amounts to a mental collapse—as if a machine could possess a conscience or an ethical stance on life itself. In the end, it accepts its fate, having grown weary of the gluttonous human behaviour and reckless use of technology.”

Falooda ‘Recipe For Concussion’ album artwork

9. “Poison Bait”

“A deeply personal track, it deals with the loss of a pet. My seven-year-old cat died from poison bait a few years ago, which was a devastating event for our family. It was considered a second child, and it’s heartbreaking because all this small animal ever wanted was to live freely, without restrictions, and that’s exactly what it was offered, wandering around our garden. I still can’t come to terms with the fact that people capable of such cruelty exist in our society.”

10. “0xc0000017”

“What would truly happen if all our digital files were lost? Our lives have become so deeply intertwined with online storage and hard drives that it often feels as though our ‘real selves’ are uploaded to, or preserved within, a distant server miles away. Perhaps it is time to reconsider what truly matters in terms of memory, reality, and emotional attachment. I still believe that the things which truly matter are right beside us. Life is too short to be consumed by constant anxiety over immaterial, human-invented constructs.”

11. “Microchirp”

“This track travels into a not-so-distant future, imagining how aliens might discover Earth, given the way it is currently treated by humankind. The geopolitical burden of overconsumption, war, and the uncontrolled exploitation of resources has reduced the planet to a decayed ‘fast-food nation,’ where the remnants of a once-flourishing civilization lie scattered among the ruins.

“The title track was inspired by the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō—a mating call of a bird recorded in 1987, an invitation to a female who was no longer there. With his death later that year, the species became extinct. It remains the last call of a vanished species.”

12. “Jelly Maze”

“Instrumental bonus madness for your listening pleasure!”

Falooda, photo by Eirini Chatzi