Rosalia: MOTOMAMI | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Experimenting with her signature flamenco-trap style more ambitiously than ever before, MOTOMAMI, the new record from international sensation Rosalía, is the exact pop, electronic, songwriter album we’ve been waiting for since her breakthrough EL MAL QUERER.

Deep into the new record, the one-minute long title track MOTOMAMI, stands out with Rosalía’s punchy vocals and bass-heavy production. Though it’s over before you know it, much like the whole record, it depicts a sound that can shift between sweet and traditional and experimental and tense within mere moments. That shift is most notable on CUUUUuuuuuute, which features modified vocals, warped and pounding bass and alarms that ring throughout. Then, something miraculous happens. The track is interjected, almost interrupted by a bridge of pure elation, stark piano and Rosalía’s natural, operatic vocals. Just as quickly as this segment begins, whistles and pounding bass return, taking you into a whirlwind of Rosalía’s experimental vision for MOTOMAMI. Similarly to how her collaborator Arca packaged KiCK i with a self invented font, Rosalía creates an alphabet for her iconography. Though it doesn’t translate as well in English, “F is for Pretty; C is for Charli, Angel, Crash,” it offers a more distilled insight into her influences, musical or otherwise.

Saoko, the record’s second single and one of most visceral and immersive, has a vicious bite. Pangs of bass and noise are paralleled in the music video, feaaturing loud motorcycles and extreme femininity. This aesthetic is splashed across the artwork too: Rosalía front and centre, a metallic helmet reflecting any gaze upon her body, awash with a graffitied album title and pen marks for detail; messy but precise.

From her flamenco roots, to the urban trap of EL MAR QUERER to the experimental electronica of MOTOMAMI, Rosalía is the rare artist that envisions a rich array of sounds and styles and has the potential to actualise all of it, to stunning effect.

- Sean Tayler.