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Alejandra Ghersi's debut full-length under the Arca moniker arrives like a transmission from some post-apocalyptic future where beauty and brutality have learned to waltz together in perfect, terrifying harmony. Having spent the previous years crafting otherworldly soundscapes for the likes of Björk, Kanye West, and FKA twigs, the Venezuelan producer steps fully into the spotlight with *Xen*, a work that feels less like an album and more like an alien autopsy of contemporary electronic music.

The genesis of *Xen* can be traced back to Ghersi's formative years split between Caracas and New York, a cultural displacement that seems to have gifted her with an outsider's perspective on both Latin American rhythms and Western electronic traditions. After relocating to New York to study at NYU, she began experimenting with the fractured beats and spectral melodies that would eventually coalesce into the Arca project. Her work with Kanye on *Yeezus* and the haunting productions for FKA twigs established her as electronic music's most compelling new voice, but *Xen* reveals an artist unshackled from commercial considerations, free to explore the darker corners of her imagination.

Musically, *Xen* exists in a space that defies easy categorisation. Part ambient meditation, part industrial nightmare, it draws from reggaeton's percussive DNA while simultaneously deconstructing it beyond recognition. Ghersi treats rhythm like a living organism, allowing beats to mutate and evolve in real-time, creating a sense of constant motion even in the album's most meditative passages. The influence of her classical training surfaces in the album's harmonic sophistication, while her fascination with digital manipulation results in textures that seem to breathe and pulse with artificial life.

The album's opening salvo, "Now You Know," establishes the template immediately – a gorgeous, melancholic melody that sounds like it's being slowly consumed by digital decay. It's followed by "Sad Bitch," which marries devastating beauty with an undercurrent of menace that runs throughout the record. But it's on tracks like "Thievery" where Ghersi's vision truly crystallises. Here, she constructs a sonic cathedral from fractured percussion and ethereal pads, creating something that feels simultaneously ancient and futuristic. The track's seven-minute runtime allows ideas to develop organically, building to moments of genuine transcendence.

"Sisters" represents perhaps the album's most accessible moment, built around a hypnotic loop that recalls both minimal techno and traditional Venezuelan folk music. It's a masterclass in restraint, proving that Ghersi's power lies not just in her ability to create chaos, but in her understanding of when to pull back and let silence speak. Meanwhile, "Tongue" ventures into more abrasive territory, with distorted vocals that sound like transmissions from another dimension layered over stuttering, broken beats that seem to collapse and rebuild themselves in real-time.

The album's centrepiece, "Xen," serves as both mission statement and emotional core. Over nearly six minutes, Ghersi constructs a piece that feels like a conversation between organic and digital elements, with melodic fragments that surface and disappear like half-remembered dreams. It's here that her classical training becomes most apparent, with harmonic progressions that wouldn't sound out of place in a contemporary composition, albeit one filtered through a distinctly 21st-century sensibility.

In the decade since its release, *Xen* has proven remarkably prescient. What initially seemed like an outlier in electronic music now feels like a blueprint for a generation of producers who've embraced genre fluidity and emotional complexity. The album's influence can be heard in everything from Death Grips' industrial hip-hop to the deconstructed club music emerging from labels like NON Worldwide. More importantly, it established Arca as one of electronic music's most important voices, paving the way for subsequent releases that have continued to push boundaries while exploring themes of identity, transformation, and belonging.

*Xen* remains a singular achievement – an album that manages to be both deeply personal and utterly alien, accessible yet challenging. It's a work that reveals new layers with each listen, a testament to Ghersi's ability to create music that operates on multiple levels simultaneously. In an era of playlist culture and shortened attention spans, *Xen* demands to be experienced as a complete work, a journey through landscapes both beautiful and terrifying. It's essential listening for anyone intereste