KiCk i - Arca: Review
is a Venezuelan based record producer who first emerged working behind the scenes on projects like Kanye West's Yeezus, FKA Twigs' LP1 and Bojrk's Vulnicura and Utopia. She has released 3 prior studio albums to increasing critical success and has grown massively in name recognition in the three years since her last record.
Review By Lavender:
Despite the fact that I have never quite been blown away by an Arca solo project I have been in love with her production credits for quite a long time. Both the immense creativity and willingness to innovate and experiment made Arca an enigmatic figure in the music world, with her mysterious persona adding even more intrigue to the mix. But much like SOPHIE before her Arca has had a major coming out moment in the 3 years since her last record. Not only publicly identifying as non-binary but also lending her face and body to numerous music videos and pieces of promotional material for the first time. Combining this with an increased connection to the world of youthful experimental electronic music and a very active social media presence and Kick sounds like the first record coming from Arca the girl rather than Arca the mysterious production wizard. As a result the album is chocked full of more personality than ever before and more often than not the combination of Arca's studio proficiency with this newfound presence creates fireworks.
The record had 4 singles and while I didn't dislike any of them, I do enjoy two of them much much more. Nonbinary is the records opening song and a personality mission statement that feels like Arca being unabashedly herself for the first time. The song features a borderline rap verse with the indelible swagger of somebody you'd think had been doing this for ages. The confidence is intoxicating and I've had the song on repeat since it first dropped as a single. The records last single was KLK which gave us our first taste of the impressive feature roster the album boasts with flamenco pop super star Rosalia on board. Arca's production is slick with watery bass and squelching sythns thst just refuse to settle down but the vocal chemistry put on display between the two is really the highlight. Not only is Rosalia sounding as beautiful as ever but Arca's dizzying appearances all around the track keep me on my toes in a way I love.
The other two singles aren't bad tracks but they tend to confuse me at points. Time is a very abstract and spacey track that almost has touches of shoegaze in its wailing distant keys. The vocals are very very understated and the mix makes it difficult to really tell what is going on at all in the song. Despite the fact that I think this is on purpose it definitely could have been pulled off better. Mequetrefe is a little bit better with a bright and relentlessly jittery instrumental palette that constantly changes up its sound over two minutes. While I like the wild synths and gunshot percussion more than the pitch altered vocals I still think the song achieves a pretty unique sound and its inclusion here doesn't bother me at all.
Speaking of problems I had with the record lets get some trouble tracks out of the way first. Riquiqui shows off some vocal gymnastics from Arca but comes up short pretty much everywhere but the hook. Despite that highlight most of the song comes off really un-focused and it doesn't really work with the rest of whats here. Afterwards had me excited given that Arca manages to pull a Bjork feature but the track is honestly a far better display of Bjork's talent than Arcas. I don't even think the song is particularly amazing but it reminds me more of something Arca would kind of silently produce for a Bjork album rather than is landing on her big coming out project. No Quede Nada is the closing track and I really enjoy most of it particularly when Arca channels early Anohni vocally and gets into an almost operatic vocal delivery. My only issue with the song is that it seriously drags on, with this record being under 40 minutes and there being numerous other tracks here that I wish had gone on longer I'm just not sure this was the right choice for the longest track or the closing moment.
If you take the Bjork song out of the question the album hits a ridiculous streak of great tunes in the second half starting with Calot. This track is most rminiscent of earlier Arca work specifically her last self-titled record. Not only is the vocal performance all encompassing but the instrumental just refuses to settle in the background and features near constant embellishments that I love. Watch is a short but fiery track with Shygirl vocals littered all over it. The biggest highlight of the song however is the fucking balls to the wall beat that makes for thoroughly bop friendly material. This is immediately followed by another hard-hitter Rip The Slit. The track is once again big on personality with vocals that sound straight ouf of an Iglooghost song and the result is a fast paced banger with a ton of instrumental development and detail over its runtime.
La Chiqui is a wild meeting of the minds between Arca and SOPHIE that comes together fabulously. The track is a pseudo industrial banger with some intoxicating vocals from Sophie that are often intimidating and overpowering in the best way. The only thing I wish the track had was a longer runtime because it feels like we only get a taste of the insanity these two could create together. Finally Machote is probably the most inherently beautiful song on the record with compelling lead vocal melodies and a synth heavy instrumental that doesn't get broken up quite as much as they did on some of the singles.
Kick i is by far the most personal music we have ever heard from Arca so far and it is mostly for the better Her confrontational and irresistible personality is often a great companion for her experimental genre-blending musical palettes. My biggest complaint with the record is that it spends just as much time on some of its weakest ideas while many of my favorite songs run under 3 minutes. Despite that it is a project I will certainly be returning to frequently this year and probably a record we will be looking back on for years as an important development in one of the music industries most enigmatic young talents. 7.5/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
This is a strange cover. It doesn't seem to have any substance and it's too simple for its own good. The area around the subject could've been used to make it more ompelling and is wasted with the grey background. The subject is well rendered but doesn't have anything that makes me want to know more about it. Relatively underwhelming. 3/10
For a more pop inspired take on experimental music check out my review of Charli XCX's how im feeling now here
