Sudan Archives wants to make movement her mission. After realising at one of her shows that both the crowd and the artist were too static, she decided to reassess her approach. She knew she needed to do one crucial thing. To create music that electrifies the listener, evoking a unified kinetic response that leaves limbs flailing in joyous delight.
To do that, she realised she needed to write as her true self. As such, she took on the persona “Gadget Girl”, a tech-obsessed alter ego that felt more authentically her. As such, the new record, The BPM, is a concept album, with the protagonist steadily becoming corrupted by the technology she sought to master before reaching an epiphany in which human and machine can operate in harmony.
However, you don’t need to know any of that to enjoy the album because The BPM is a high-tech, futuristic odyssey, full of heaving, sweaty, dance-floor-ready anthems. It’s also an intensely human record as it broadly documents a painful breakup that saw her retreat to the comforts of the studio. As a result, The BPM sounds like a brand new Sudan Archives.
Opening with swells of signature violin, “DEAD” gradually morphs into a thumping techno track replete with pounding beats and warped synths. It’s a dynamic and restless opening as Sudan Archives boldly puts an orchestral spin on black dance music. Thematically, it sees her in deep conversation with her past self as she offers reassurances that everything is going to be just fine (“Where my old self at / Where my new self at’).
“COME AND FIND YOU” throws in elements of dancehall and Afropop on a song about searching for connection. The key to it is the relentless musical backing, where even her violin is used more like a fiddle to keep everything in constant motion. “YEAH YEAH YEAH” takes classic, soulful R&B, mixing it with psychedelic house to produce sensual futurist pop. It finds her struggling to shake off memories of past relationships despite her surface-level confidence.
The achingly seductive “TOUCH ME” finds her loving herself and her body as she throws herself into intimacy over glitchy beats and pulsing synths. “A BUGS LIFE” takes inspiration from classic Detroit house with soulful vocal samples sitting alongside warm chords and classic Roland drum beats. Despite the incredibly full production, it never sounds overcrowded, with the humanity of the vocals always standing out.
“THE NATURE OF POWER” is similarly indebted to Detroit house but with an orchestral twist. It takes on added significance as it sees her collaborate with her ex-boyfriend, the rapper James McCall IV, for what is probably the last time (“Take what you need / Leave what you can”). “MY TYPE” is a full-on rap banger full of snapping percussion and futuristic synths. It’s at this point that it’s clear that she could take on just about any aspect of black music and wrestle it into any form she likes. That continues with “SHE’S GOT PAIN”, a downtempo, abstract ballad that grows increasingly restless as fractured beats are led a merry dance by her frenetic fiddle playing.
In “A COMPUTER LOVE”, Gadget Girl literally drowns, while the lyrics ponder whether technology connects us or leaves us more isolated as the music edges forward before bursting into a cacophonous roar of sound. Fizzing, title track “THE BPM” serves as a fitting summation of the album’s main aim – to make you move. It’s a riotous, rave-up replete with its own slogan: “The BPM is the power.” Thumping techno-raver “MS PAC MAN” is a tongue-in-cheek ode to sex in all its glorious forms, which refuses to take itself too seriously (Put it in my mouth, then my bank account / Fuck you on the couch in my favorite blouse.)
“LOS CINCI” is arguably the most personal song on the album as she mourns all the things left behind in Childhood. The fittingly dark, “NOIRE” rides claustrophobic beats that pull you into the shadows. It sees her taking a chance as she embraces the electric thrill of being touched by someone for the first time (‘I’m comfortable in this place with you / I’ve never been in this space with you.)
The closer, “HEAVEN KNOWS”, guides the album to a calming conclusion. Here she offers an olive branch to anyone who has hurt her before, while acknowledging that we are all human and capable of mistakes. Owning these mistakes is human, something computers will never truly understand.
The BPM is a cybernetic force of nature that introduces a new Sudan Archives to the world. This latest version is sometimes silly, sometimes spiritual, occasionally vulnerable, but always engaging. It’s an album that’s constantly in motion with each musical idea turned up and tested to the absolute limit. If movement was her mission, then mission accomplished.
Paul Carr
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