Written Before Listen
God….at the end of the year, Electronic producer Arca decided to drop 4 albums in continuation of her Kick series, which means I have to review 5 albums. Here is the third one. Arca is a producer I know little about. I know she dis work with people like Kanye and Bjork and she is a pioneer in the Latin Electronic scene. With that out of the way, this is low-key my first time listening to Arca in-depth, so without further ado, let’s get into this.
Production
As we all know at this point, Arca is no stranger to strange production. Nearly every track is noisy, abrasive, and extremely glitchy. A majority of the tracks are deconstructed to the point where it changes the definition of a song. The album doesn’t even get mellow until the very tail end of the track. It’s 35 minutes of pure shock and I love it.
Genre-Bending
Surely Arca creates some of the noisiest music of 2021, but is she versatile with it? Yes! The song “Morbo” has these very Metallic, bouncy rhythms that lean towards something more industrial. The songs “Skullqueen” and “Rubberneck” I wouldn’t consider laid back, but it reminds me of old-school IDM from Warp records. The song “Señorita” is like a slowed-down DnB track that leads to a cool industrial hip hop song. The song “Intimate Flesh” is one of the gummier sounding tracks with a lot of bass and atmosphere. Also, the final track is kind of like a breather as it leads more towards an art-pop direction out of anything. Overall, I’d say Arca does a good job spreading the chaos around.
Comparison To Kick 1 & 2
Well first, it’s completely different from KiCK ii. It takes the noisier side of KiCK I and creates something even louder and less accessible. It’s more of a challenge but it’s in my opinion, the most enjoyable project out of the three so far
Influences
A lot of influences could be noted to Arca, but there is one in particular that is catching me like no other….Death Grips. Yes, I know it’s obvious that Death Grips is a starting point in Arcas music at this time of her career. The deconstructed hip hop and glitch reminds me of the music that Death Grips was doing during the Government Plates era. Does she use them well? I’d say so. It’s not super derivative or anything but it’s surely a starting point.
Cons
Well for starters, it’s not the most planned out album. The “35 minutes of chaos” claim I made could both be a strong positive and a light negative. It’s not the most planned-out album in the bunch. There are also only a couple of notable tracks that I’d consider recognizable. With that being said, Kick iii is the strongest project in the series so far, by a fair margin
Verdict
Damn…Arca came out strong on this album. Unique production, slight sensuality, and a lot of impact. This will appear in my year-end list and I highly recommend it for any experimental fan and electronic fan.
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