Arp, the alias of Alexis Georgopoulos, will return to Mexican Summer with a new album.
New Pleasures is the second chapter in Georgopoulos’ ZEBRA trilogy and it advances the narrative begun with 2018’s ZEBRA. Pastoral in mood, expansive in style, that record acted as a dawn on a nascent world; now, though, Georgopoulos drops us deep into the grid of the city.
“New Pleasures fast-forwards a few centuries, locating listeners in a post-industrial Sprawl (to borrow an expression from William Gibson’s “Neuromancer”) of concrete and glass,” the Brooklyn label explains, “imbuing the album with the flinty glow of commerce, the sleek rhythms of industrialization, and the cool finesse of brutalism.”
We’re told that the sensation the music offers is almost rubbery; it makes you feel as if you could flex, bend, and squeeze your body inside out. Sonically, we can expect a vivid, deconstructed take on high-definition pop and ethereal psychedelia.
“New Pleasures,” streaming below, comes alongside a striking video directed by filmmaker Adinah Dancyger. “My first impressions when listening to the song made me think about the life of a dollar in one given day and how a web of connections amongst people / New Yorkers can be formed through the act of transaction,” Dancyger says. “It was cool to discuss this with Alexis as his angle for this video was leaning towards similar images of commerce. It was an opportunity to explore the plethora of relationships one has to ‘things’ despite the connotations with any given scenario.”
Before signing to Mexican Summer, Arp put out albums on Smalltown Supersound and Rvng Intl.
Tracklisting
01. The Peripheral
02. New Pleasures
03. Preset Gloss
04. Sponge (for Miyake)
05. Eniko
06. i: /o
07. Plaza
08. Le Palace
09. Traitor (Dub)
10. Embassy Disco
11. Cloud Storage
New Pleasures LP is scheduled for July 15 release. Meanwhile, you pre-order here.
