mapalma (aka Martina Gucić) is self-releasing EP Crybaby on November 30, with a preview of track ‘Boneless Beauty’ premiering on AQNB today. The Zagreb-based producer has worked with the likes of mobilegirl, Staycore, and Santa Muerte in the past, while her Nightcap debut came out on Vienna’s Ashida Park label last year.
You can see Gucić’s relationship to her peers in the decontextualised sampling and noisy club elements of a record that explores “the curious bond between nature, technology and human condition”. For “Boneless Beauty”, a highly filtered and processed vocal sample — reminiscent of Movement-era Holly Herndon — burrows through listless square waves and brief samples of a hardstyle syncopation or the muted rhythm of a hand drum. It’s followed by the weighty cadence of a bass-heavy, industrial beat that follows the “convoluted story of self-reflection, nature and the pursuit of beauty.”**
