Arca

Produced and recorded by Arca, The complete Kick Cycle; KICK i – kiCK iiiii limited edition boxset. The visionary artist is joined by guests including Björk, Rosalía, SOPHIE, Sia, Shirley Manson, Oliver Coates, Planningtorock and Ryuichi Sakamoto across this series. Launched in 2020 with KiCk i being selected as our album of the year, the Kick Cycle has given space for the Grammy nominated producer to explore and push boundaries across various genres.

KiCk i

Following 2017’s “Arca”, on which Alejandra Ghersi found her voice, the alternately savage and serene “KiCk i” was the sound of Arca comprehensively owning it. “KiCk i” is our album of the year because, simply, no-one else makes art quite like Arca. The noise surrounding “KiCk i” presaged what was meant to come: this, Arca’s fourth, would be the pop album. Or, at the very least, it would be a counterpoint to the head-in-a-vice-grip hiss of “@@@@@”, a 62-minute composition that landed in February. News broke ahead of “KiCk i”’s midsummer release that both Björk and Rosalía would feature on the record, sharpening expectations for. Once the full tracklist was revealed, the appearance of Shygirl and SOPHIE further quickened the heart. Where Arca’s music was once anti-melodical and dyspeptic, now it fringes rapture. ‘Time’, a fan favourite since its appearance in Arca’s DJ sets as far back as 2018, is a blissed-out ballad that could just as well appended with ‘After Time’ and seated next to Cyndi Lauper’s ‘80s staple in the slow-dance hall of fame forevermore. Another moment of grace arrives when ‘Calor’ unfolds to reveal multiple-tracked vocals, a Greek Chorus of Ghersis.

KICK ii

In the second volume of Arca’s ‘Kick’ series — the Venezuelan producer’s ambitious, back-to-back multi-album project with XL Recordings — her detailed pop twists and reaches into contorted Latin rhythms. Liquid, shape-shifting textures are grounded in the weight of her ragged, industrialised reggaeton, with leading singles ‘Prada’ and ‘Rakata’ driving bodily movement through swirling resonances. Despite KICK ii’s mind-bending abstractions, her foray into mainstream pop with ‘Born Yesterday’ features vocals by the Australian singer Sia and adapts experimental electronica into the conventions of melodramatic pop balladry. Arca’s sound, as always, comes across as a substance never before yet discovered. But in demonstrating astounding versatility, KICK ii still hones her razor-sharp focus.

KicK iii

The third volume of Arca’s ‘Kick’ series - the extraordinary project by the Grammy-nominated Venezuelan electronic producer dropping multiple heavy-weight albums in rapid succession - delves deeper into dense, industrial pulses. Needle-pointed designs continue to edge with the ultra-pop of XL Recordings’s output, while advancing its rhythms in an unceasing exercise to redefine musicality at large. Like leading singles ‘Incendio’ or ‘Electra Rex’, KicK iii portrays the manic side of her production, putting a metallic veil over her more melodically-minded prequels but driving a thunderous impact throughs hypnotic soundscapes. Caught in the whirlwind of Arca’s data barrage, in the particularly dark and daring Kick iii, an energy of constant metamorphosis is pounded and jam-packed into an eruptive science-fiction.

kick iiii

In the fourth edition of Arca’s ‘Kick’ series - an astounding cycle of releases on XL Recordings from the Venezuelan producer - her intensely fluid sound is grounded into downtempo fluctuations. Following the high-drama pop of Grammy-nominated Kick I, or the deconstructed, industrial chaos of KICK ii and Kick iii, kick iiii is breathier and moodier. Each of its guest musicians - ranging from cellist and song-writer Oliver Coates, Berlin-based art-pop producer Planningtorock, to New York based experimentalist No Bra - contribute to its otherworldly ambience, blurring sonic boundaries even further. Gothic but ethereal, Arca’s kick iiii is a free-spirited swim after proving the limitless depths of her ever-mutating musicality.

kiCK iiiii

The final chapter of Arca’s epic ‘Kick’ series - releasing an astounding four albums through XL Recordings in a single week - kiCK iiiii closes the producer’s impossible mission at its slowest and most sorrowful. kiCK iiiii offers a fascinating contrast to earlier moments of glitch-pop optimism or dance music brutalism heard in releases only days ago. Classical influences are above all striking, with even a track featuring legendary Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Arca’s ambient sounds surface triumphantly above a pitch-black canvas, its ripples accented by an ASMR-like intimacy. Her distinctive sonic touch is felt in each texture, and as her sonic world gradually unravels her listeners are guided to her innermost emotions.