After releasing three under-appreciated EPs in 2012, Alejandro Ghersi — aka Arca — attracted the attention of one Kanye West. The young Venezuelan served as one of three production consultants on Yeezus (along with Hudson Mohawke and Young Chop), instantly catapulting him into a new sphere of notoriety. Arca has since produced FKA Twigs’ EP2, co-produced Bjork’s Vulnicura and released two remarkable full-lengths of his own.
Yesterday the producer shared “Urchin,” the second new Arca track since the release of November’s Mutant. The offering is more melodic than most of Ghersi’s repertoire, but “Urchin” retains the subtly unstable dissonance that has come to define his work. Paroxysmal synths and alien glissandos, spaced out over the course of four minutes, create the chaotic effect of sound waves reverberating in a metal-plated trench. Once again, this time very memorably, Ghersi takes us to the austere Arca netherworld that we’ve come to know and love.
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