upcoming ARTPOP remix album (unofficial)

April 30

On His New Album, Plaguehorse Explores Radicalizing Lady Gaga’s Most Daring Project

Experimental noise musician Plaguehorse plans to push the boundaries of music with his upcoming debut remix album of a pop record that has garnered a cult-following for over a decade. As he is in the final stages of this unconventional body of work, I wanted to discuss this upcoming album with him ahead of its release. I want to examine why Lady Gaga’s third studio album, ARTPOP (2013), serves as the foundation for his budding solo career. I aim to understand how he plans to find a place for Gaga’s personal politics, themes of sexual abuse, and her presence within a queer counterculture within his own catalog.

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Is there a central message that you want people to pull from this album?
As a speaker at YALE's Emotion Revolution Summit 2015, Gaga states that you have to become the antithesis of the status quo in order to start a rebellion. The beauty behind ARTPOP’s creative rebellion is its adaptability and its elasticity with the vast subject matter and topics presented throughout the album. My pursuit of this project has changed over time, from initially being reimaginings of some of my favorite songs to now being a retrospective analysis in hopes to recontextualize the album to represent my catalog as well as my personal politics.

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Artists you chose to sample include Diamanda Galás, Ayesha Erotica, Hennessy Fyah, and Muslimgauze. Describe your process for incorporating these seemingly unrelated people.
ARTPOP’s thematic commonalities include Greek mythology, persecution, queerness and sexual abuse. To honor the true nature of ARTPOP, I juxtaposed absurdity with prestige by sampling works that fall on a spectrum of thematic relevance to radical subject matter. Songs like MANiCURE and Swine take the perspective of female rage and seek out revenge, similar to the debut album by Greek-American musician and AIDS activist Diamanda Galás, Wild Women With Steak-Knives (The Homicidal Love Song For Solo Screen). Alternatively, in Aura or Sexxx Dreams, Gaga juxtaposes this perspective by playing the seductress or the role of the damned to personify sexual repression. Although both themes are expressed through the sentiment of empowerment, the lyrical content is at times misguided by stereotypes. To compromise this, I camouflaged Aura in an extremely noisy sample of Bethlehem Is Free by British-Experimental musician Muslimgauze. His works primarily function to bring awareness to the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict, as well as the influence The Islamic World has had on his art. He states that his music is politically influenced before a sound is even made.

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Were there other ways that you wish you could have honored this legendary album?
I will continue to find ways to honor this album for the rest of my life. Gaga introduces ARTPOP as a celebration; her pain, exploding in electronic music. I hope to honor creative rebellion and celebrate queer counterculture for the rest of my musical journey through radical approaches to electronic music. ARTPOP² has been an incredible project to take on and its release next month does not signify the end of an era. I’m excited to expand the world of ARTPOP.

ARTPOP² will be released on May 15th. Look for this release from Plaguehorse on YouTube, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp!

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