Arca
Mutant
MUTE
7/10
Despite an uncompromising commitment to the myriad fragments of his personal vision, the solitary recordings of producer Alejandro Ghersi (as Arca) can elevate the braver listener onto an auditory plane possessed of its own continuity. It is with good reason that Ghersi has been invited to direct his powers towards the furthest-leaning appendices of popular music in recent memory—helping shape the soundscapes of FKA twigs, Björk, and Kanye West—all the while displaying commitment, if paradoxically so, to the respective fragmentations of his illustrious collaborators.
Born in Venezuela, and eventually raised there following a stint in the one-percenter arena of Connecticut, Ghersi’s formative years were spent in the private tutelage of an economic vacuum. In juxtaposition, Mutant is anything but constrained—navigating the formless potential of electronic music with a steady ear that pays deference to neither genre nor gender. Over twenty tracks exceeding an hour, the album is a proper evolution of last year’s Xen, down to its waxen demonic artwork. The title track unfurls revolving industrial machinery and a sub-bass pulse that evokes a titan breaking its slumber before a choir of anti-voices chides and beckons it forward in warped digi-tongues. For all its daunting expanse, Mutant is a display of Ghersi’s divine patience in commanding a music that longs to move beyond its own maker.
