Sasha Geffen

Sep 28, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Sasha Geffen

Across his decade-long body of work, Rahim Redcar—the artist known until now as Christine and the Queens—has tangled in the interplay between sexual and spiritual surrender. A dynamic, expressive singer, he’s nurtured a perennial fascination with the ways those experiential extremes play out across the body—how the diaphragm lurches when an encounter with the divine drops you to your knees, how the thrill of an irrepressible attraction can catch in your throat. He’s no stranger to being overcome.

Jul 16, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Sasha Geffen

For 潘PAN, the body is a bomb about to explode. On the 2015 Grimes track “Scream,” her voice fluttered across Mandarin lyrics about howls packed deep in the lungs like gunpowder; between delicate rap verses, she let those subdued screams erupt. The Taiwanese musician born Pan Wei Ju, previously known as Aristophanes, has toyed with the boundary between composed beauty and volcanic monstrosity ever since.

Jun 23, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Sasha Geffen

Think of the flush that must have crept over Mike Read’s face the moment he realized that when Frankie sang “come,” they meant cum. Pupils and capillaries dilated, he must have scanned the lyrics printed on the sleeve of “Relax” and read the word “suck” as if for the first time in his life.

Jun 13, 2024 | aclu.org | Gillian Branstetter |Kendall Ciesemier |Sasha Geffen |Stefan Smith

As we celebrate Pride Month and approach summer, one thing is on our minds: queer pop icons. From the fast fame of Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp to praise for hitmakers like Billie Eilish and Victoria Monét, it feels like we’re in a moment for unapologetically queer music in the mainstream. This is especially true for queer femme artists, who are reaching pop stardom. To dive into this moment and see if others are noticing it too, we called up some fellow music-lovers who have been tuned in.

Nov 10, 2023 | pitchfork.com | Sasha Geffen

In the 2022 supernatural horror movie Skinamarink, the camera’s distorted lens stares into complete darkness for so long that the darkness starts to take on a form all its own, roiling with what’s not there. A similar presence emerges from the holes left open in Matthew Barnes’ work as Forest Swords. His silences have depth and body to rival the figures that clatter inside them.