Sudan Archives’ The BPM review: mesmeric break-up bangers

As the album’s title suggests, The BPM takes Sudan Archives‘ avant-pop music and transplants it to the club. Inspired by the vintage sounds and drum machines of the Chicago and Detroit undergrounds, Brittney Parks’ third album pulsates in rhythmic patterns that adds a hefty muscle to her always invigorating violin playing and exposed lyricism. The combination opens up a new way of presenting for the 31-year-old, one that melds the technological with the emotional until a confluence of chrome and flesh is ready to leave the lab. It’s her most direct and instantly impactful work to date, while also digging deeper into her psyche. “Sometimes I can get real low but I am high right now” she sings on “Los Cinci,” summing up the mix of hedonism and torment that chart a path through The BPM.

The BPM explores the end of a relationship and the freedom of being newly single, always finding a nuanced way of presenting both scenarios. One highlight on the album is the smooth house song “My Type,” reminiscent of Kaytranda before he started making music solely for raves in Dubai. “Touch Me,” meanwhile juxtaposes moments of confidence (“I know you like my body, yea it’s curvy like a wave”) with Parks pleading for honesty in an intimate moment. “She’s Got Pain,” perhaps best sums up the album’s narrative with its depiction of a marionette Feeling both connected and controlled at the same time, it’s a metaphor for an uncomfortable middle ground. By pushing her own music further out toward the edges, Parks has found a new place to innovate, play, and grow.