Arca Puts His Own Spin On Queer Sound

Alejandro Ghersi is the incredible face behind Arca. His music transcends all levels and sounds in the music industry. His sounds showcase his queer identity, which shows both the beauty and the pain.

Ghersi grew up in Venezuela first playing with the idea of making music. When he was young he made music with the name Nuuro, as an indie pop artist. As a result, he became popular in Venezuela. Originally when he had not come out as gay under the name Nuuro for his own safety, he used ungendered words to protect his identity. As this project progressed he was gendering words. After this, he cut the project and moved to New York to go to school at NYU. There was a lot that he had to hide according to his interview with The Guardian, he said.

As a kid, I spent a lot of my mental energy hiding who I was and attempting to fit in,” he says of his childhood in Venezuela, a country where, as he puts it “if I dressed the way I do here I’d be in physical danger”. “And as an adult, I spend a lot of energy in my work making sure that I celebrate the things I was once hiding.

When he moved to New York, he came out as gay and started composing the concept of Arca that would be released in 2012.

Arca’s work usually has an industrial sound with mixtures of electronic influences pairing with queer pop culture references. His songs include unpredictable bass patterns with crying synth sounds. He has worked with renowned and underground artists such as Bjork, Kanye West, Jessa Kanda, Napo, and Babyfather.

Lately, his work has been a lot more personal. In this album Piel, he has unleashed his angelic voice once again to produce a whole new level. His vocal cords bring out almost an opera sound with him speaking in his native language. This video that he put out for this latest project you can see Ghersi walking around in a dark area dressed in a tan corset among open-eyed people who you could assume are playing dead. He is also making physical contact with unidentified bodies.

Arca places messages within his music that expresses how he has been treated about the way he presents himself in daily life and at shows. One clip that he sampled in his work was from the movie The Cement Garden described the double standard behind men being able to showcase any traces of feminine style or behavior.

The sample is of the character in the movie Julie saying:

Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots because it’s OK to be a boy, but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading. But secretly you’d love to know what it’s like, wouldn’t you? What it feels like for a girl?

You can hear more of Arca’s work from listening to this project.

Björk and serpentwithfeet Collab on a Track off of Bjork’s New Album “Utopia”.

Björk’s anticipated album Utopia was released alongside one of her favorite people to collaborate with Arca. A Venezuelan producer. What was not anticipated was her single Blissing me, collaborating with the beautiful serpentwithfeet. While the world does know a lot about this Icelandic artist who is known for combining experimental sounds with pop influences, we need to explore serpentwithfeet.

 

 

Who is serpentwithfeet? You could call him a goth, radical, version of Frank Ocean. Josiah Wise was raised in Baltimore, Maryland in a middle-class Black neighborhood. His family kept a very tight eye on him and raised him on religion. His dad owned a Christian bookstore, and he participated in choir in the church. This inspired him to continue to pursue his music in the future. He eventually moved on to attend University of the Arts in Philadelphia. What he originally wanted to specialize in was classical music. When this door closed for him after being rejected, he started to develop his own persona. Wise embraced his queerness and started to create songs that emphasized his romantic love for men. This is where he began to thrive and find himself.

When asked about serpentwithfeet’s work Björk shared that “He is, vocally, one of the most emotionally generous singers,” She explains to The Fader that she admires the “balanced idiosyncratic pagan spiritual angle” to his work — an image that she describes as “optimistic goth.”

All we can hope is that Björk and serpetwithfeet decide to work together again because this track is revolutionary!

How Lunice Abandoned Trap for a Unique Sound

 

Lunice is an electronic producer who comes from Montreal, Canada! He is known for his intricate sounds that resemble something along the lines of Aphex Twin and Intelligent Dance Music (IDM). What you might remember him from is a former group that he was in called TNGHT partnered with Hudson Mohawk. TNGHT resembled hard-hitting Trap beats with Hip-Hop influences. Lunice’s Hip-Hop and J-Dilla influences set him apart from the crowd.

TNGHT parted ways for several reasons according to Lunice. Their group had some success and became fairly popular, but they decided to step back. This happened because both artists saw what the progression of the genre that they created was going to look like, and did not want to stay along for the ride. Both did not want to enter into what Trap was going to look like. When Hudson Mohawke and Lunice parted ways, this gave Lunice an opportunity to work on creating his own sound and identity.

Lunice views his artistic process as something that takes time. His music is well thought out and takes hours of understanding before he can start creating. Lunice describes his process as “80% conceptualizing and 20% application”. His albums take lots of time to create in order for him to translate ideas from his brain to a computer. 

 

Moving Parts out now!

 

Lunice dropped two major projects in 2017. One of which was with a renowned producer named The Alchemist who has worked with national Hip-Hop and Rap artists such as Danny Brown, School Boy Q, Mobb Deep, 50 Cent, and Raekwon. The Alchemist’s decision to work with Lunice says a lot about Lunice’s position in the music industry currently. He is in a great place to start taking off and recieving more credit and influence in the scene.

The second project that he dropped in 2017 is called “CCCLX”. Lunice describes in his Fader interview that it is larger than the sound. His project’s concept involves “stage design, lighting, merchandise, and visuals, a multi-sensory experience designed to immerse fans”. You can really see Lunice’s dedication to creating an environment around his sound! The album has features from Denzel Curry, SOPHIE, CJ Flemmings, and King Mez.

 

 

Lunice (Left) and The Alchemist

 

Lunice sees himself making lasting trends in electronic and hip-hop culture alike. Regardless of this, he believes that trends should absolutely not be forced. Forcing an aspect of a culture according to Lunice does not allow for the trends to last. Because of this, he wants people to listen to and accept his music on their own.

Lunice’s work is meaningful because of the different people that he works with to create these sounds. He has been able to collaborate queer artist Le1f who has lots of unique and psychedelic influences. Lunice’s work with SOPHIE has also created more mediums for him to explore.

The beauty of working with artists that place themselves in both Pop and Hip-hop spaces is that they open up opportunities in both spaces! You can see how Lunice is in a neutral place between Hip-Hop, Pop, and IDM. Who knows what he’ll do next!