Arca Plays a Bloody Mechanical Matador in Sexually Symbolic 'Reverie' Video

Venezuelan producer Arca (Alejandro Ghersi) is proving to be an incredibly complex, important visionary in contemporary queer music, releasing today an intense new visual for his song, "Reverie." The track will appear on his forthcoming self-titled LP (off XL Recordings) and showcases Arca's melancholic vocals above ominous electronic production. He's already shared two singles--"Piel" and "Anoche"--and will DJ at Gucci's Milanese music festival later this month.

Related | Arca Will DJ Gucci's Mini Music Festival in Milan

"Bullfighting is a piercing metaphor: you are fighting a bull, and at the same your self," says Arca, who performs as both matador and bull in the Jesse Kanda-directed video. "You are not the victim or the oppressor, you are both-- Animality and bestiality are conflated. Evoking sex invokes our animality. And evoking our animality, in turn, invokes spirituality."

Throughout the visual, which was recorded in one take, Arca towers in monstrous mechanical legs, echoing the sonic duality of "Reverie"--equally fragile and mighty. He stands tall, and yet teeters wildly throughout the flourescent space, at one point being stabbed by a bullhorn before falling to his dramatic, bloody death. Though we declared Junglepussy's "Somebody" video as the best of 2017, this may have just taken the lead. Watch, below.