Best New Tracks - Pitchfork |  |
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Posted: 18 Sep 2013 11:00 AM PDT
"Why", the debut single from journeyman polymath Thomas Arsenault's Mas Ysa project, leaps from section to section and sound to sound with abandon, and in doing so bears the influence of its well-traveled composer. A Montreal native with formative stretches in São Paulo, Oberlin College, and San Francisco, Arsenault rose to micro-prominence as a key figure in the web of Brooklyn venues like 285 Kent and Glasslands, collaborating on compositions with a dance company by day and producing records by night.
"Why" is the first fruit of recording sessions that followed live performances with bands like Deerhunter and Purity Ring, and it flies back and forth at whiplash-inducing speeds between haunted folk, splashy techno, and dewy synth tones cribbed from a 1980s pop notebook. Each distinct section is held together by Arsenault's woolly yelp, howling the titular question, and when he reaches the wild, thrilling stew of a climax after five sprawling minutes, you find yourself asking why it took him so long to release something in the first place. Mas Ysa: "Why" on SoundCloud.  |
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