Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc sounds like a blueprint for a house that was never meant to be built. It is music that constantly interrupts itself, layering acoustic fragility with aggressive digital manipulation and found-sound debris. At its core is the idiosyncratic voice of Tim Kinsella, delivering lines that feel like overheard secrets or philosophical riddles over guitars that chime and then suddenly collapse into static.

What makes them distinctive is their refusal to settle into the comfortable grooves of their Chicago emo roots. While their peers focused on catharsis, Joan of Arc focused on deconstruction. They are famous for their maximalist studio approach, sometimes stacking over a hundred tracks of audio to create a sound that is simultaneously intimate and overwhelming, like a collage made of high-definition photographs and torn scraps of paper.

Start with 'A Portable Model Of' to hear the bridge between their punk origins and their experimental future. It captures the band at their most accessible while still hinting at the beautiful, confusing labyrinth they would spend the next two decades building.