Arca: "Sheep"
This is the sound of Alejandro Ghersi brushing so many SoundCloud pretenders clean off his shoulder and into the abyss, where a horde of starved lambs may or may not feast on their entrails. The amorphous, all-original 17-minute mix is called Sheep and it starts off on-message with brooding ambiance punctured by errant, unmistakable baa’s from a flock that seems to have gotten lost somewhere between the farm and Pluto. These are not the cute baa’s of campfire songs and kids’ toys; in Arca’s gnarled realm, the noises sheep make are quite fucking terrifying. I mean, have you ever seen a sheep’s skull?! He might be onto something.
Soon enough, the animals are teleported to another dimension and, around the five-minute mark, Arca gives us something he so cruelly withheld on his debut album: a real knock, a beat set to rumble, not crumble. Of course, a little while later, it crumbles. But then it’s replaced by brain scans and zero gravity and maybe an elephant caught in a black hole slow-dancing to a Future of R&B think-piece. (Naturally, weirdo of weirdos Robert Wyatt shows up in chopped-up form at some point.) A closing hymn is appropriate, because it makes no sense. What does make sense is the fact that this piece debuted as part of a fashion show strutting duds from an inevitable Fifth Element reboot. This is haute couture as malfunctioning bestial hybrid. Arca is still setting the trends; follow at your own risk.
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