THE BPM

The moment Brittney Parks got an iPad and an electric violin, her world shifted.It was then that she started making the innovative vocal and string loops that she would later become known for as Sudan Archives. With each release, she explores new territory, reinventing herself and her sound. Parks's latest album achieves no less, taking listeners on a journey through a futuristic, chrome-plated world born of her imagination.Heavily inspired by club sounds in Chicago and Detroit, THE BPM presents a more confident, refined Sudan Archives; this time, as Gadget Girl, "a technologically advanced musician who's exalted by her embrace of technology," according to a press release for the follow-up to 2022's breakthrough Natural Brown Prom Queen. Catwalk beats on club-ready hits like "A BUG'S LIFE" and "NOIRE" hit peaks and valleys with delicious precision. While it was made for dancing the night away in sweat-drenched rooms, THE BPM is far from vacant, exploring lyrical themes of mental illness, self-love, technology, romance and heartbreak. Making the album was fittingly intimate: Parks enlisted her sister, a cousin and one of her best friends to assist, exclusively working with people she already knew well rather than bringing in producers from outside the fold. THE BPM delivers the innovative but mesmerizing loops we've grown to love Sudan Archives for, while remaining fun and stimulating. Parks's buttery voice is as smooth as ever, accentuated by crystalline synths, ticking trap beats and gritty sub bass. It feels satisfying, substantial and cohesive — a feat for any 15-track album — and relevant, calling to mind recent acclaimed electropop records like Charli XCX's BRAT and Caroline Polachek's Desire, I Want to Turn Into You.It's also easy to imagine how Parks might be inspired by trailblazers in electronic music like the late great SOPHIE, who designed her own instruments and had a burning passion for club music. She, too, found producing and creating artistic alter-egos freeing and thrilling, as did her audiences. There's a shared philosophy behind their work, too; like SOPHIE's Oil of a Pearl's Un-Insides, THE BPM feels like a study of the creative process itself, and how it both reflects and shapes our inner worlds and fantasies.Radical production choices — like unnerving background noise to create unexpected heaviness on "MS. PAC MAN" — mirror disruption to traditionalism, subverting expectations. Through this approach, artists like Parks and SOPHIE ask themselves who they want to be and how they want to be seen, imagining futures not limited by the constraints of the harsh realities of the outside world — and inviting listeners to do the same.Perhaps it's the vulnerability at the core of THE BPM that really makes what Sudan Archives is doing still feel so fresh. Standing out in the club music scene, it sets a new standard for anyone interested in playing with sound while maintaining an accessible heartbeat.