“Hypnogaja make a brilliant impression with ‘Escalate,’ a layered, occasionally menacing single that threads the needle between goth rock gloom and industrial pop urgency. It’s built around an insinuating rhythm section that pulses beneath caustic keyboard flourishes and brooding vocals. There’s a cinematic tension to “Escalate.” Every sound feels deliberate, from the metallic stabs of synth to the low-end rumble that drags like chains behind the beat. The vocal evokes the disenchanted cool of classic Nine Inch Nails without veering into imitation. Hypnogaja knows the terrain they’re working in and chart it with precision, pushing familiar influences through a modern, genre-fluid lens.”