Ariel Pink - Underground (2019)

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti archival series is inaugurated by Underground, an album originally self-released on cassette in 1999 by the 21-year-old undergraduate CalArts student. Underground captures Ariel Pink’s rapidly developing practice, which in short time shifted from crude proto-punk home recordings to a singular aesthetic that explored a wide spectrum of pop music. Now available in remastered and expanded form as part of Mexican Summer’s Ariel Archives reissue series, this version of Underground reveals astounding details missing from Ariel’s earliest recordings and demonstrates the evolution of an obsessive music fan to a startlingly original and mysterious innovator.