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Jan 4, 2022Taken together, the albums are overwhelming in their stylistic diversity; one minute, she’s serving up clattering electro on the likes of iii’s ‘Skullqueen’ or ‘Ripples’, and the next, we’re hearing her break classic ideas of what ambience should mean to fit her own mould on the Oliver Coates-featuring ‘Esuna’.
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Dec 8, 2021Left bruised and raw from the previous entry, the soft pads and thick walls of synth noise on tracks like the Planningtorock-featuring "Queer" feel like weighted blankets. ... kick iiii plays like a surrealist diary of Ghersi's experiences as a queer person and transgender woman.
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Dec 3, 2021Though combining contrasting elements in her music is usually one of her greatest strengths, hearing Arca concentrate on kick iiii's hyperreal sensuality and vulnerability makes it a crucial part of the Kick anthology.
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Dec 3, 2021We then enter the eye of the storm. kick iiii swaps cacophony for the serene comfort of atmospheric subtlety. Songs like "Esuna" grace us with raw orchestral elements which are seldom found in Arca's work.
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Dec 3, 2021Comparatively, ‘iiii’ feels much softer, drenched in futuristic hues of pink and peppered with a handful of well-matched guest appearances.
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Dec 3, 2021Boquifloja sets Arca’s voice over a downtuned guitar riff that feels faintly grungy: its chorus is simultaneously beautiful and unnerving, the music slurring in and out of tune, the vocals glitching and stammering. Xenomorphgirl takes another familiar sound, Auto-Tuned sprechgesang vocals, and maroons them in an alien electronic landscape that keeps shifting from calming to threatening.
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Dec 3, 2021KicK iiii soundtracks the edges of her universe. So far out from the frenesis of KicK iii and ii, the fourth installment’s driving force is a “bloodlust for beauty” (“Whoresong”).
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Dec 3, 2021kick iiii was intended to be all instrumental piano, and while it certainly isn't that, it is a relatively calm affair (in stark contrast to its violent cover).
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Dec 7, 2021kick iiii contains some of the most contemplative songs in the series—like the Oliver Coates collaboration “Esuna,” a mournful swirl of strings and plaintive vocal harmonies—but the widescreen intensity of “Alien Inside” fuels two more of the set’s boldest songs.
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Dec 3, 2021The differing self-states explored across the KICK anthology are manifested in the overall sonic palettes of each record, whether it be the bombastic reggaeton of KICK ii or the orchestral minimalism of kiCK iiiii, which sees Arca at her most subtle and understated. ... They all work together to support the vision of Arca, whose voice cracks, malfunctions, and explores the flux of its existence in tandem with the music.
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Rolling StoneJan 5, 2022An astonishing - at times overwhelming - four-album, 47-track, two-and-a-half-hour release. [Jan 2022, p.71]
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Dec 3, 2021If her work has previously resembled a maze of metallic doors and broken mirrors, kick iiii is more akin to the day after a snowstorm: There’s some beauty to it, but the unsightly ice piles curdling near the sidewalks stand out the most.
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The WireDec 22, 2021Having all this material together is bittersweet – rather than four distinct sets, couldn’t these styles have been brought together in a more innovative way? Arca’s work is invariably surrounded by much chatter about disrupting musical forms, but four albums divided into four distinct moods feels like an unusually conservative vehicle for her ideas. [Jan 2022, p.59]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 19 out of 23
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Mixed: 2 out of 23
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Negative: 2 out of 23
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Jul 3, 2022Really dreamy album but it's also the most uninteresting and unstructured one in the kick series. - strong six
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Dec 7, 2021