kiCK i

Arca

I've been following Arca's career for a while now and I have seen the steady evolution in her sound. The disorienting and warped electronics on her earlier projects became even more thunderous and overwhelming on Mutant. Then, with her self-titled album, Arca ventured into art-pop, debuting her operatic vocals. This brings us to 2020. Arca releases kiCK, which seems to encompass all the sounds and styles she has experimented with over the course of her career in addition to incorporating more of a Latin influence. Initially, I did not take the time to experience this record, that is until this past December when Arca expanded the kiCK series to five albums! Putting out this much music in such a short time period felt like such a momentous occasion; one that could not be ignored. Therefore, to ring in the new year, I decided I would begin by tackling this ambitious kiCK series.

Right off the bat, kiCK i gets off to a great start. Nonbinary is this confrontational and unapologetic declaration of personal freedom. Delivered in cold, sassy raps, the track draws parallels to Arca's hip and trip-hop beginnings. The ending reaches funhouse territory as these plinky, warped synths chime away. Time is a considerable change of pace with some soft ping-ponging synths and some great ghostly vocals. Mequetrefe is the first real amazing moment as Arca takes this beat with a Latin rhythm, and incorporates these crazy edits and glitches to make it truly original. The track is devoid of harmonic content until this awesome, processed guitar melody pops in. The song's middle section thrusts us into this insane portal where we revisit some of those fantastical storms that I loved so much from Arca's earlier albums. We emerge through the other side with the reprisal of that guitar melody and the tension just slips away.

Unfortunately, after this is where my excitement begins to die down a little. While I enjoy Shygirl's performance on Watch, I wasn't too crazy about the buzzing synths. KLK was another attempt to flip some Latin influences, however, I feel like all the elements in this track clashed instead of supporting each other. The track that follows, Rip the Slit, I found to be quite obnoxious with the chipmunked vocals that are heavily cut up as they try to recite the song's title. I did enjoy the calmer moments on this record though. Björk's contribution on Afterwards is beautiful and while I wasn't totally enthralled with Arca's attempt to emulate that magic on Calor, I think Arca knocked it out of the park with his performance on the final track, No Queda Nada. The track features a very emotional vocal performance from Arca over top of a cavernous backdrop with some echoing percussion.

6.6

Standouts: Mequetrefe, No Queda Nada

Electronic, IDM (2020) XL. Reviewed January 8^th, 2022

kiCK ii

Arca

Sadly, kiCK ii is easily my least favourite in the series. The first half is plagued by Latin infused tracks that share too many similarities and also feature some pretty awful synth lines or vocals. These tracks still don't compare to Araña though, as this track reaches truly insufferable levels. The clumsy and choppy synth line that comes in is one of the most obnoxious things I've heard Arca put together, and it just goes on and on.

The rest of the tracks are marginally better, but ultimately nothing too stimulating or thought-provoking which is very strange considering Arca has been consistently boundary pushing throughout the course of her career. There's the art-pop anthem in Born Yesterday which has a decent performance from Sia, and I should also mention the unsettling tone the album opens with on Doña. Hearing squishing and crushing sounds that my brain associates with classic gory video games certainly makes an impression. This album did produce one song I genuinely really like though, and that's Muñecas. I love the calm atmosphere projected by the soft electric piano timbres mixed with the curious vocals and odd revving sounds which provide an interesting counterpoint.

5.2

Standouts:

Electronic, IDM (2021) XL. Reviewed January 8^th, 2022

kiCK iii

Arca

kiCK iii is perhaps the most bold and brash album in the series. Lots of busy and overwhelming percussion, puzzling synth timbres, and some pretty zany vocal performances and manipulations. The tone of this record is immediately set with the first few opening tracks. Bruja begins very much like the openers on the previous two installments; heavily based around percussion edits and intrepid vocals. In the last half of this track, Arca goes off the deep end, screaming and yelling like I've never heard her before. Incendio is another helping of the same except for one spectacular section in which Arca performs some relentless quick fire raps. Super catchy, mesmerizing, and incredibly memorable.

Perhaps my favourite track on this album is Skullqueen for the pretty insane synth runs that remind me a lot of something I would hear on a Squarepusher record. In the last half of the track, the tone slightly shifts and we get these soft bell melodies against Arca's typical disorienting percussion. Coming in close second is Señorita where Arca fully transitions into experimental and industrial rap. Now when I described some of the rapping moments on previous kiCK tracks, they were really more incoherent rambles. On this track though, Arca is actually rapping, with killer personality and flow. I thought it was super impressive.

Now as for the rest of the tracks on this record, I thought they were fairly decent. Not super enthralling, but there were some cool moments like the gabber kicks and distorted bass on Fiera, or the warbling synths on Ripples. Even while I wasn't super head over heels with this set of tracks, I appreciated that every track had it's own unique flavour unlike the last instalment.

6.8

Standouts: Skullqueen

Electronic, IDM (2021) XL. Reviewed January 8^th, 2022

kiCK iiii

Arca

After the tumultuous and chaotic third instalment, Arca takes it down a notch on kiCK iiii. Not as dense rhythmically or percussion wise, however, still quite challenging on the vocal front. Many of the tracks on this record feature very heavy vocal manipulations which both help and hurt this batch of songs. Tracks like Queer and especially Hija feature some pretty grating vocals that unfortunately offset a lot of great things that are going on instrumentally. It's certainly not all bad though. The vocals on Witch are very odd given the sort of fried robotic sound they have, but when a vocal duplicate comes in to harmonize along with Arca's signature warped pianos, the track becomes quite intriguing. I would say the same of Alien Inside, who's vocals are provided by the great Shirley Manson. Her voice comes off as this authoritative, overarching AI that narrates a sci-fi apocalypse over these burning synth leads.

This record is of course not only about the vocal treatments, there are still quite a few compelling instrumental performances. On Esuna, there are some wonderful horn and violin leads, or at least those are the sounds from what my ears can tell. Furthermore, these instruments have a surprising amount of life to them making me wonder if these are synthesized or are in fact real performances. Boquifloja, which unfortunately runs a little too long, is redeemed somewhat by the beautiful piano that plays out the song's final moments. Lastly, I really enjoyed the melodies and the synth timbres of Lost Woman Found. It shares much of the same types of timbres on Alien Inside, however, with a much more melancholy vibe.

6.4

Standouts:

Electronic, IDM (2021) XL. Reviewed January 8^th, 2022

kiCK iiiii

Arca

Here we are. We have reached the end of the kiCK series, and I am happy to announce that the last instalment is my favourite. kiCK iiii lightened the mood a little bit and kiCK iiiii continues even further in that direction. Arca places a heavy focus on composition with this batch of tracks; foregoing the heavily manipulated vocals (or vocals at all for that matter), the noisy and abrasive synth timbres, and the oppressive percussion in favour of more minimal and soft production. The result is some of the most beautiful and serene work Arca presents across this entire series.

Pu, Estrogen, and Ether are all fantastic compositions highlighting soft plucky synths, some synthesized nylon guitar, and piano on each respective track. I also really like Amrep which is a spacy sci-fi composition which may actually feature a sample of a Star Fox 64 sound effect. I'm actually curious as to how many video game samples Arca has sneakily incorporated into her music. Moving on, we have the very cinematic Sanctuary which features spoken word from the influential Ryuichi Sakamoto and some fantastic medieval organ; one of my favourite sounds that Arca tends to work with.

My favourite cut on here is, without a doubt, Tierno. The instrumental backdrop has what I'd describe as some synthesized plucked harp, but the star of this track is Arca's emotive voice. I've heard this voice in so many manipulated iterations over the em of this series, but hearing her natural voice is often such a treat and this track is one of the best examples of why that is the case. The final track that concludes this series is also very interesting as I find it to be a marriage of a lot of musical motifs that were presented over the course of these five records. The noisy beats, and the odd sound clips (in this case represented by the sharpening of blades), and the soft synthetic pianos all combine to accurately summarize what kiCK is sort of all about. Even the lyrics on this track mirror a lot of the themes in the opening tracks on the other installments. Although, here it is presented a little less confrontational. "She wears her crown," Arca repeats; a triumphant footnote on a body of work that she should definitely be proud of.

After reflecting on this series of albums, I have come to the following conclusion: Arca doesn't necessarily make music that I'm dying to revisit time and time again, and this is certainly reflected in my evaluation of the music (for what that's worth). What I can say though is that Arca is incredibly talented in creating a unique and mesmerizing sonic experience. I found that my first time listening to these records was quite exciting, although sadly, my enthusiasm faltered each time I came back. What matters more than my opinion though is that you understand this: Arca is truly a unique, one-of-a-kind, musical talent that with each and every step, further pushes the boundaries of sound design, continues to incorporate different genre influences, and becomes increasingly more bold and confident with the incorporation of her vocals. The music may perhaps not be for everyone, but if we shift the frame to see kiCK as more of an auditory experience, well than that I would say is certainly worthy of everyone's time.