You need to listen to Sudan Archives’ violin opus for the club

My introduction to the Sudan Archive was with the song “Not for Sale” from her first EP pelvis In 2018. I’ve been a huge fan ever since. With each album, she finds new ways to sculpt her violin sound, twisting it in defiance of expectations.

Athens I found it in conversation with her, leaving her timbre organic and largely recognizable, veering from experimental pop to more ambient passages. Prom queen in natural brown She embraced the aesthetics of vocal collage, samples, and modern R&B, blending her violin with more pronounced electronic elements. BBM It contains recognizable violin passages, but fully embraces the more technological elements of the Sudan Archive’s sound.

The album begins with the song “Dead,” which begins with gentle orchestral rhythms and a processed but recognizable violin. Then, at the 1:30 mark, the tempo drops off – what sounds like high-pitched riffs dancing around the stereo field, and the rippling bass drags everything onto the dance floor. The track serves as a mission statement, with multiple movements that explore different incarnations of the archive’s sound as she asks, “Where’s my old self? Where’s my new self?” She responds to herself by repeating “Here, here” in response to each of them.

What follows is a roller-coaster ride of dance music, from the four-on-the-floor funk of “My Type”, to the sardonic sexual rap of “Ms. Pac Man” – there’s even an Irish jig in the middle of “She Got Pain.” Throughout the record, there are flashes of auto-tune, drum and bass breaks, house piano stabs, techno synths, and of course, soaring violin flourishes. Often, there are several of these things on a single track as Archives eschews typical pop song structures, moving giddily from one style to the next.

Not surprisingly, the beat is on BBM It is generally improved over a lot of previous archive records. But not all club bangers. “Come Find You,” winks at ’80s and early ’90s R&B acts like Sade. And the lyrics often turn to matters of the heart, “I’ve found a way to travel to you even when we’re not in sync I’ll find my way to you, even when it’s really hard I love to push and pull,” she sings on “David & Goliath.”

BBM It is a dense and frenetic record that highlights its unpredictability and sonic fragments. It’s also my favorite record of 2025. Even though it was only released in mid-October, it was my most-streamed album according to my Apple Music Recap. Sudan Archive BBM Available on Bandcamp and most streaming services, including Qobuz, Tidal, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube Music, and Spotify.