Tel Aviv outfit Sababa 5 return with their most brooding and cinematic work to date. Long praised for fusing psychedelic funk with Turkish and Middle Eastern modes, the group push deeper into the noir end of their soundworld here. 'VU' opens with slinky, prowling swagger-wah-soaked guitars, murky organ vamps, and raga drones conjuring smoky backroom energy. The title track is a standout: a taut, moody slow-burner built on dark synth melodies and bass-led tension, like a lost cue from a 70s Poliziotteschi film. But 'Nadir' isn't one-note. 'Tell' lightens the mood with a melodic, synth-led groove that leans toward Anatolian pop, while 'Timor' and 'Into Orbit' stretch the band's atmospheric reach into slower, almost dubby territory. Instrumentals like 'Zenith', 'Ignition' and the suspenseful '2025' offer brief detours that flesh out the album's conceptual arc-ascending and descending in tension. Still drawing comparisons to The Heliocentrics and Khruangbin, Sababa 5 are now fully in their own lane: tighter, darker, and more evocative than ever.