VARRA - IV

Twenty-four minutes. That's how long "IV" lasts, and it's all Chilean artist Varra needs to send your heart rate off the charts.

Behind the name is Vicente Barra, a streamer from Concepción who's become something of a small cult figure in internet nu jazz thanks to his hyperkinetic style and the visual aesthetic of his social media content: low-poly 3D renderings suspended in vapor skies, surreal settings that look like they've come straight out of a frozen Win98 desktop. After three albums, a handful of EPs and two concerts held on Minecraft this past May, he's now back with a fully home-made record, played (apparently) entirely by himself.

The sound is an intricate, high-density kaleidoscope that speaks to musical nerds raised on digital loops, memes and bedroom virtuosity, but also to anyone following the flashiest evolutions of contemporary math rock, the chameleonic beats of the Planet Mu scene, or certain synth-funk interlockings that have passed through Brainfeeder in recent years (Louis Cole, Knower).

Across the eleven very short instrumental sketches that make up the tracklist, everything runs and collides, never losing a strongly playful drive. "Hello Cro" opens the dance with a squarepusher-ized samba, segmented and hyper-colored like a bonus level from a Nintendo platformer. On "Bonemaxxing", mathematical hiccups and electronic whistles surface, hinting at what Battles might have become had they not lost their way before even starting.

The thread running through the record is a nervous yet light mobility, made of sudden swerves, bounces and shifting surfaces. "Birdo Lite" throws itself into a tangled, hyperkinetic, dazzlingly bright jazz-funk that looks straight to Azymuth's "Light As A Feather", while "Birdo 3" relaunches the same mood with a wonderfully liquid, shameless guitar solo, seasoned with slowdowns and accelerations that emphasize the record's videogame-like side.

"IV" is digital fusion at a tachycardic pace: short, extremely dense, designed to overstimulate rather than accompany. Hit start, and you're already holding your breath.

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01/01/2026