Xen

Arca renders Xen's body-horror directly in rhythm and synthesis. Fifteen tracks and only two clear three minutes. It is why 'Xen' and 'Sad Bitch' land as seizures rather than songs. Beats lurch and buckle instead of locking to a stable grid, while the sound design stays viscous and organic. The self-portrait works without lyrics because the body is already present in the pressure and instability of the production.

Alejandra Ghersi breaking club rhythm into something wet and jointed, with a body at the centre of it rather than a floor. It arrived with almost no precedent and half the decade after it is a response.