Performer Notes

Arca's Alejandro Ghersi remained as prolific as he was before projects like his highly acclaimed debut album Xen and his production work on Bj?rk's Vulnicura raised his profile. Just a few months after Xen's release, Ghersi issued Sheep, a mixtape of music he composed for a Hood by Air fashion show. As an artist with a distinctive look and sound, Arca's connection to the fashion world made sense, but Sheep wasn't standard runway fare: with tracks that sampled the bleating of sheep and choral music (as well as the work of Bj?rk, Robert Wyatt, and Lana Del Ray), it teetered between stylish and subversive, disturbing and poignant. Ghersi expands on this complicated headspace on Mutant, a set of tracks that feels like a hard-won celebration of individuality. A few of Sheep's pivotal moments reappear here, providing some of the album's touchstones. "Else" manages to be both delicate and heavy, while "Hymn"'s intensity reaches fittingly awe-inspiring levels. Ghersi uses chanted vocals to humanize the mechanical chaos of "Umbilical," and renders them unearthly on the eerie, frantic "En." Of course, Mutant is much more than a rehash of Sheep. Ghersi also goes deeper into Xen's elastic yet abrasive sound world, heightening and fragmenting it into extremes: stripped down to little more than echoing chords, "Gratitude" initially plays like a respite from the album's density, but there's as much tension in its spaces as there is on busier tracks like "Enveloped," a melee of ping-ponging beats and lush tones that is one of the few nods to the more structured approach of Ghersi's debut. Instead, Mutant emphasizes the physicality of Arca's music. It often feels like he is applying extreme pressure to these songs and suddenly releasing it, letting the gut-punching percussion and brittle synth tones bend and break at will. The results are often stunning, as on the strafing, sparkling opener "Alive" or the lengthy title track, which is built on a shuddering beat that sounds like it was recorded on fault lines. Mutant's fragmentation suggests the breaking of emotional boundaries as well as musical ones. From the kinetic melancholy of "Snakes" to the more personal territory of "Soichiro" (which uses the middle name of longtime collaborator Jesse Kanda as its title) and "Faggot," which unites the album's hardness and softness in a bold reclamation of that slur, this is some of Ghersi's most charged-sounding music. Mutant may be some of his most challenging work yet, but as Arca's music becomes more abstract, the viewpoint behind it comes into focus in ways that embrace strangeness, ugliness, and beauty equally. ~ Heather Phares

Professional Reviews

Spin - "MUTANT is the sound of self-assuredness."

NME (Magazine) - "Played on trebly synths and futuristic approximations of Chinese and Caribbean folk instruments, Arca's melodies now feel more human, even as they're sucked into whooshing vortexes of electronic sound."

Pitchfork (Website) - "Arca's deeply organic machine music is defined by Ghersi's ability to find grace in imperfection."

Fishpond works with suppliers all over the world to bring you a huge selection of products, really great prices, and delivery included on over 25 million products that we sell. We do our best every day to make Fishpond an awesome place for customers to shop and get what they want — all at the best prices online.

About Fishpond

You can earn a 5% commission by selling Mutant * on your website. It's easy to get started - we will give you example code. After you're set-up, your website can earn you money while you work, play or even sleep! You should start right now!

Are you the Author or Publisher of a book? Or the manufacturer of one of the millions of products that we sell. You can improve sales and grow your revenue by submitting additional information on this title. The better the information we have about a product, the more we will sell!

Submit Information

Album: Mutant *
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Alive
2)	Mutant
3)	Vanity
4)	Sinner
5)	Anger
6)	Sever
7)	Beacon
8)	Snakes
9)	Else
10)	Umbilical
11)	Hymn
12)	Front Load
13)	Gratitud
14)	En
15)	Siren Interlude
16)	Extent
17)	Enveloped
18)	Faggot
19)	Soichiro
20)	Peonies

Album: Mutant *
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Alive
2)	Mutant
3)	Vanity
4)	Sinner
5)	Anger
6)	Sever
7)	Beacon
8)	Snakes
9)	Else
10)	Umbilical
11)	Hymn
12)	Front Load
13)	Gratitud
14)	En
15)	Siren Interlude
16)	Extent
17)	Enveloped
18)	Faggot
19)	Soichiro
20)	Peonies