Best electronic albums of 2015: eight

8 – Arca – Mutant (Mute)

As I type this, Justin Bieber has gifted the Christmas number one slot to a Simon & Garfunkel / Coldplay medley. Although the reasons are laudable (yay, NHS), thank goodness Arca exists to provide a thoughtful antidote to that soft-brushed, magnolia-vomited mainstream.

I loved the sonic and visual power of Arca's Bjork support slot at the Manchester International Festival: the musical themes transmuted as adeptly as any Autechre set while we stood eye-boggled as he writhed his muscles at us.

Mutant lives in its own broken universe, each track sticking to its theme. And what themes: the ideas don’t stop coming. The strangled screams of title track Mutant, the emotional stomp of Vanity, the thin pipes playing with the bendy bass of Snakes, the shredded rave of Umbilical, the almost straight IDM of Front Load.

Mutant comes barely a year after his debut album and is all the more incredible for it. Simon & Garfunkel AND Coldplay? Save us, Arca.

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