Album Review: Arca - The 'KICK' Series

Ripping up the rule book, Arca boldly releases not one but four new albums that follow on from the success of last year’s Grammy-nominated KiCk i. Arca emerges from the chrysalis of her earlier albums which featured darkly experimental electronica that conspired to give us Aphex Come To Daddy-styled nightmares, to deal darkly spellbinding visions of futuristic pop, club and ambient electronica on these KiCk albums. They are at once more broadly accessible but still retain Arca’s penchant for sonic experimentation embedded in their DNA.

Offering up 47 new tunes that stretch out for over two hours, Arca takes the concept of maximal to new extremes. Immersing us in her strange new universe these tunes oscillate between exquisite beauty and dystopian nightmare. The Beeple-esque artwork accompanying these releases represent Arca as part human and part artificially intelligent robot at various stages of construction. It sets the scene for the science-fictional adventures KiCk delivers.

KiCk ii experiments with reggaeton rhythm by stripping it down to its most elemental form so it becomes a scaffold off which Arca’s alien synths and fierce vocal presence hang. KiCk ii comes on strong with cuts like Prada, Rakata and Tiro born out of a violent collision of desire, high heels and booming beats. The vibrant energy eventually gives way to a slower swirl of abstract electronica that winds the album down. Confianza juxtaposes cut up vocals with elegant rolling piano. It feels odd that Sia should step in to deliver Born Yesterday which drops like an Arca remix of a tune off a Sia album set to quirky bouncing house beats.

Delivering a harder grind, KiCk iii is a descent into fierce industrial-strength mutant club music. It has a sinister edge and is unrelentingly and unapologetically in your face. Cuts like Bruja, Electra Rex and Señorita with clangourous beats are designed to drill their way into our heads. Across this album, Arca manipulates her vocals taking them to the wonky helium end of the register. It’s a move that adds drama and tension to the mix and it's brilliantly deployed on Incendio which features Arca delivering an astonishing spitfire rap in Spanish.  It’s exhilarating but exhausting and this is acknowledged with the odd allure of Intimate Flesh’s 3am desires and angelic purity of Joya which is next level dreamy in ways that only Bjork could manage.

At this stage of the game, Arca has us trapped in a maze of wonderfully woozy psychedelic synthetic sounds that are woven together to create the more wistful contemplative vibes featured on KiCk iiii. Oliver Coates features on Esuna with a melancholy solo amidst drifting stings. Xenomorphgirl wraps us up in glistening synthesized sludge that oozes with a certain aural lusciousness. Planningtorock helps Arca to celebrate Queer identity with a stately dignified pride as she sings, “I got tears but tears of fire.” It is at once a protest as much as it is an affirmation of identity. Embarking on an introspective voyage of self-discovery and dealing with the consequences, Alien Inside features a spoken word turn from Shirley Manson. Lost Woman Found features Arca at her most vulnerable. It's from a lush nest of synth sounds that she talks to us in poetic terms about the difficult path she has taken to find the woman she has become. These KiCk albums are all about Arca’s epic transgender journey. They document her personal and artistic evolution within the imaginative synthetic aesthetic from which she operates. What distinguishes Arca from so much of the electronic music pack is that her music drips with real emotion that most listeners can at least understand and take to heart.

Wanting to prove that she wants to give us everything she’s got all at the same time, Arca also offers up KiCk iiiii, an ambient album that speaks in the language of gentle lullabies, melancholy threnodies and soothing vocals. Largely instrumental, electronic soundscapes sit to the back of the mix as playful compositions for harpsichord and piano seemingly blur into each other to create a dreamy comforting vibe. Even Ryuichi Sakamoto, sounding like a shaman casting a spell, makes an appearance on Sanctuary. At the end of this album, The Crown sees the queen emerge from all of this with a royal sense of triumph and victory.

Perhaps one of the most challenging and overwhelming album experiences on offer this year but suspending disbelief and entering the KiCk universe is sure to reward many listeners.