In Mutant, Arca manages to construct impressive soundscapes, mix traditional style with experimental and convey strong emotion all without saying a single word.

Arca, the pseudonym of Venezuelan producer Alejandro Ghersi, released his sophomore album in 2015, which ended up largely ignored by Americans. Although experimental music isn’t exactly meant to break into the mainstream, his style is especially underground in the United States because of its lack of conventional rhythm and accessibility that Americans tend to enjoy – often to a fault. There are multiple tracks on Mutant that are hard to listen to, but the occasionally rough packaging shouldn’t deter people from seeing the beauty this record has to offer.

In some moments, Arca is able to take me, whether intentionally or not, to a happy Venezuela. The upbeat sampling present on “Anger” and the soulful chants of “Umbilical” are prime examples of this rich Venezuelan feeling – a feeling that you want to believe is real.

However, the entire album could very well be a commentary on Venezuela. Distant gunshots heard on the backend of “Vanity” and police cars of “Siren Interlude” stand out as the most obvious references to the social and political instabilities of modern Venezuela, references that I can appreciate because they are well developed and not rushed.  

Arca not only takes you to his country, he also makes you feel emotion through sounds that range from disgusting to intimidating to beautiful. The best song at doing this is “Vanity,” which begins with an addictive hook that abruptly transforms into multiple walls of sound that I can only describe as obnoxious. Eventually, Arca’s impossibly horrific jabs combine to become a gigantic ensemble of sound that overwhelms in the best way possible.  

On some of the tracks, Arca chooses to construct soundscapes that are more traditionally beautiful. “Hymn,” “Snakes” and “F—-t” lack the terrible sounds that are consistent throughout the rest of the album and instead present a stripped down side of Arca’s style, a side which is still well executed.   

Mutant’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses, the sheer depth of development in each track makes up for the occasional ugly sound, sounds that I can confidently call ugly because I can tell Arca didn’t put them there to be pretty.