Over the past couple of years Alejandro Ghersi’s production talents have been harnessed by Kanye, Björk and FKA twigs, whose buckling R&B sound he helped to craft. On Mutant, however – the Caracas-born Londoner’s second solo record in just over a year – his sonic experiments roam free. Increasingly unaccountable to any kind of rhythmic framework (Arca’s early output centred around corrupted hip-hop beats), this is music that appears completely cacophonous if you let your concentration slip even for a second. Usually comprising stabs of industrial sound that eventually assemble into a cranking, Frankenstein’s monster of a refrain, investing in these songs is hard work; only occasionally do you feel as if they’re actually taking you anywhere. One such occasion is the album’s title track: a buffering battlefield interrupted and finally consumed by balmy trance respite – the sound of a mental hell quieted. Distressing, transcendental and beautiful, it’s a journey so remarkable it could excuse a hundred false starts.
