Bleep

New Arca material is always something to get excited about, but given that we haven't had a new solo release from the artist in three years it’s particularly thrilling to be able to get ‘@@@@@’ around our ears. Presented as a single track, this record contains over an hour of material. Despite the long time away Arca clearly hasn't lost the knack for her torrid, emotionally fraught take on electronics. Club styles - techno and reggaeton, but also gabber and trance - are stripped for parts here, the sonics twisted up into strange new shapes which recall what we heard on Arca’s breakout releases Xen and Mutant. These are contrasted with evolutions on the future-ballad style of her acclaimed eponymous 2017 record - a particularly poignant song, which channels old collaborator fka Twigs, comes at the album’s mid-point. ‘@@@@@’ is also interspersed with passages of writhing noise, hissing ambience and choral mechanics which channel the sombre beauty of Arvo Pärt. Taken altogether it makes ‘@@@@@’ the sort of trip that, for all her imitators, only Arca is capable of producing.