Arca’s new album, KICK ii, is scheduled for release next month, but she’s not going to keep the mutants waiting for the next instalment. Today, she announced the third entry from the Kick series (titled KicK iii, obviously) is set to arrive on the same day, December 3, via XL Recordings.
KicK iii will feature the previously-shared otherworldly rap track “Incendio” — appropriate, given that it’s described by the musician as “the most incendiary entry in the kick universe... a portal directly into the more manic, violently euphoric, and aggressively psychedelic sound palettes in the series.”
Alongside the new announcement, Arca has also shared another single from the 12-track LP, “Electra Rex”.
“Electra Rex is a new archetype I propose in reference to commonly understood ideas of Freud regarding the oedipal complex,” she explains. “Oedipus Rex kills the father and unknowingly making love to the mother. Electra complex posits the binary opposite: killing the mother and unknowingly making love to the father.”
“And so I am the first to propose a nonbinary psychosexual narrative to avoid falling into the same generational tragic blind spots. Electra Rex, a merging of both names, an integration of both Oedipus Rex and Electra: Electra Rex it kills both parents and has sex with itself, and chooses to live.”
“Electra Rex” comes with a music video directed by Carlota Guerrero and Arca, and filmed in front of Barcelona’s Plaça dels Àngels in 2020, shortly after the release of KiCk i. Watch the visuals, and find the KicK iii tracklist, below.
Last month, Arca also shared “Born Yesterday”, an emotional collaboration with Sia that will feature on KICK ii (listen here). Last week, meanwhile, came the KICK ii track “Prada/Rakata”, a track “about celebrating psychosexual versatility”.
KicK iii tracklist:
- “Bruja”
- “Incendio”
- “Morbo”
- “Fiera”
- “Skullqueen”
- “Electra Rex”
- “Ripples”
- “Rubberneck”
- “Señorita”
- “My 2”
- “Intimate Flesh”
- “Joya”
