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Nov 25, 2014Xen is decidedly playful, its alien sound palette used to conjure surreal songs that are melodramatic and nursery rhyme-like.
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Nov 24, 2014His time alongside Gesaffelstein added to his understanding of the space between beats, and the emotive power of these hesitations.
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Nov 6, 2014Not interested in following in anyone's footsteps, Arca borrows back the skeletal remains he made to West and creates new albeit strange life. Gorgeous and ghastly, Xen is no clone, but it may too resonate through generations.
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Nov 3, 2014Fans of his hip-hop and R&B work will certainly be challenged by the sparse and experimental nature of Xen, which makes it one of the most satisfying listens of the year..
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Nov 4, 2014It's an instrumental record, as probably is to be expected, and those looking for the kind of emotional depth (beyond primal urges and base fear) or commentary might be a bit disappointed. Nonetheless, that minor point will probably be a non-issue, totally overshadowed the devastation in play.
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Nov 3, 2014Taken as a whole, it is an album about unstable unities, things that cannot easily hold together, wholes breaking to pieces and being put back together again in new and unfamiliar shapes.
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Q MagazineDec 8, 2014Everything's in flux, subject to change, but Xen is still a record of mood-altering substance. [Jan 2015, p.120]
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Nov 17, 2014This is uncompromising stuff, with little holding back, and the end effect is one that wears not just its heart, but its soul, on its sleeve.
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UncutNov 11, 2014It's a stunning showcase of his emotional, slippery, psychologically fraught production style. [Dec 2014, p.71]
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Nov 7, 2014The album’s 15 tracks don’t quite reach the 40-minute mark, but each track has a unique identity that both stands alone yet slips into the narrative of Xen.
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Nov 7, 2014A captivating, at times unexplainable reaching of pained highs and battered lows.
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Nov 5, 2014It’s not quite the full spectrum of colours, but there’s an ambitious scale within its palette that allows Arca to craft the textural masterpiece that Xen quite often hints at being.
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Nov 4, 2014What he's given listeners may be imperfect, but it's also freakishly musical, completely synthetic, and utterly human.
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Nov 3, 2014It’s one of those albums that elegantly restates the appeal of digital music, expressing hues and states of being that fall outside the analogue spectrum.
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Nov 3, 2014Moments of softness and even warmth make Ghersi’s debut album a more varied, mature and easier listen than last year’s unforgiving &&&&& mixtape.
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Nov 3, 2014The way Arca plays with and decorates time, letting sounds and moods mutate spontaneously, makes Xen a complete picture of his artistry and also promises much more.
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Nov 4, 2014Xen remains as singular--and often as brilliant--as the rest of the Arca catalogue.
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Nov 3, 2014It’s a gracefully self-contained ecology--a sonic environment rich with empty and warm spaces, within which the listener is urged to breathe more easily and share in a queer feeling of belonging.
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MojoDec 17, 2014This is uneasy listening with little in the way of recognisable groove or plotting. [Jan 2015, p.94]
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Nov 10, 2014Even if his chops as a producer aren’t in question, the writing on Xen is too patchy to fully realise Ghersi’s ambitions. Still, it’s hardly lacking in ideas.
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Nov 5, 2014Arca has built a robotic, alien world strengthened by its beating heart.
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The WireDec 15, 2014Shorn of vocals, Xen suffer the same fate as much beloved contemporary beat music, which is a kind of dazzling monotony. [Nov 2014, p.63]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 60 out of 69
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Mixed: 5 out of 69
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Negative: 4 out of 69
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Nov 4, 2014
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Nov 4, 2014
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Jan 28, 2015