July 15, 2022 - Mexican Summer
Ears to the ground, it’s an electric storm!
New York’s eclectic and experimental electronic musician Arp, aka Alexis Georgopoulos, has dropped pure energy into our ears with his album New Pleasures, an irresistible synthesizer wonderland that celebrates the craft of music composition with luxurious, detailed maximalism—and it smiles at you so much that you can’t help but smile back.
Rich layers upon layers of glorious melodies are in constant conversation with each other, relationships emerging then retracting, each moment in the cacophony perfectly harmonious, meticulously placed, yet still so serendipitous. This is abundance music. Organic as the clouds move, in a pattern unpredictable to human calculations, the energy in these 11 tracks incubates, charges, and discharges over and over again in the form of infinite play, a percussive approach to melody, the optimism of an 80s cinematic sidewalk dance, and 3-D sound engineering that engulfs you. This music is alive, perhaps more alive than you.
The whole album is a beam of endless light, but, for the skimmers in the room who can’t be bothered, here are my favorite tracks: ‘New Pleasures,’ ‘Eniko,’ and ‘Embassy Disco.’ Oh, and the synths that sound like flip-flops on PVC pipes in ‘Preset Gloss’ (ifkyk).
Ears to the ground, please. ☔