Arca and Hood By Air’s Shayne Oliver have a long history of musical collaboration—including the Arca’s “Sheep” minimix for a HBA runway show that was one of THUMP’s 25 Best Mixes of 2015. But last fall, the pair made their partnership official and announced a project called Wench with an overwhelming mix that featured original songs as well as pitch-fucked edits of t.A.T.u and Crystal Castles. Today, they’ve returned with further details on that team-up and a new single, appropriately called “Sick.”
Over at Dazed, Arca and Shayne dropped off the new track and let it slip that they have a full album recorded together. According to Oliver, they started working together with the goal of crafting a “sexually deranged music project that had a lot to do with tension, sexual identity and how to feel like a man having sex with the feelings of a woman and a man.” From that ideological basis, they recorded “dozens” of songs in Arca’s then-apartment in Chinatown, which turned into a full-length that they’ll release at some point.
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The pair offered no concrete details on when this project will see the light of day, but “Sick” is enough to ease the indefinite wait. It’s an otherworldly collision of just-off synth lines and Oliver’s helium-balloon admonitions toward repentance that feel ascendant and sickly all at once—what heaven might feel like if St. Peter doesn’t take away your poppers at the gates. Listen to “Sick” here, and head to Dazed for the full interview.