Description
Sandblasted freeform dembow weirdness that harnesses the ramshackle energy of Clara!, the blunted atmospheres of Kelman Duran, and Demdike Stare’s genre-shifted audio excavation. Next level.
The latest release on special guest DJ and D. Tiffany’s xpq? imprint, “Rico!” continues their quest to chart club music’s outsider fringe. It’s the latest set from Dan Rincon and Michael Red’s La Fe project, and documents a productive weekend at Rincon’s Montreal studio where they realized the studio was haunted. Every time they’d make a banger, the lights would flash uncontrollably.
On opener ‘Alta’, the duo bend dembow rhythms around a mess of sirens, offworld chatter and detuned synths. It’s chopped ‘n screwed dancehall, sounding chemical as f*ck without ever losing the fwd motion. From here the sounds dissolve into a fractal froth of acid-dipped rhythms and hotknived drones. ‘Axtal’ is a syncopated surrealist dub cave excursion that sounds like Vladislav Delay on a particularly messy weekend, while the flip returns to blazed reggaeton territory.
’77’ is particularly absorbing, with dubstep wobbles filling the gaps between dancehall thumps and modular gurgles. It’s not a million miles from Low Jack or Equiknoxx’s skeletal island experimentation, and manages to sound painstakingly oblique without ever losing that club-ready throb. Must be the ghosts.
