sangre nueva: goteo

Shockout debut from Dembow dream team DJ Python, Kelman Duran & Florentino aka Sangre Nueva, with a killer EP released between DJ Python’s Worldwide Unlimited and Florentino’s Club Romantico imprints, funneling hybrids of reggaeton into deep house x R&G with cinematic influences = unmissable heat for dancers/DJs on the 90-100bpm flex, built for the party. Assembling an ad hoc trio under the Sangre Nueva banner (translating to “New Blood”), the project is a concerted effort in developing the bloodline of reggaeton, and its dembow beat, which has become a prevailing unit of global rhythmic currency across the board from street raves to pop charts in the past decade. On this fundamental cornerstone of Latin music derived from tresillo - or triplet - drum patterns, the trio present remarkably direct yet dreamy arrangements of their shared style, with Carribean musician Kelman Duran bringing a widescreen sensibility to the ohrwurming top lines of Florentino, and the sensuality of DJ Python, in a lushly compelling tessellation and consolidation of their respective flexes. Part of an evolving, hybridising tradition rooted in Panamanian dancefloors over a 100 years ago, and since found across the Latin diaspora, Sangre Nueva’s music recalibrates the hip-gripping swerve of dembow with headier content for a totally striking new addition to the style, one porous to US house and UK grime, as much as more impressionistic aspects of ambient and soundtrack paradigms. The results patently echo the producers’ respective background, but also place them in a league of their own, naturally elevating and expanding the dembow sound via crafty electronic processing without patronising the ‘floor, firmly taking artistic license to build on their passions for the mutable genre. The dusky air of ‘Hurt’ is resoundingly hashed with a mix of soundsystem cries and whispered voices that really set the scene, carrying an effortless traction that’s tightly harnessed into the perreo-styled sexiness of ’Sola’ with its sleek Reese bass and R&G vocal motifs, before ‘Goteo’ dials in heavy inspiration from Miami bass electro in its trunk rattling subs, and ‘Sincero’ is the perfectly romantic kiss off that lives up to its title with gorgeous, twinkling melody and sultier pacing lent an edge of brooding UK pressure akin to Burial. From Florentino’s actions with Bad Gyal & La Zowi & Kaydy Cain to Kelman’s recent Kanye West studio forays, and thru DJ Python’s cult deep dembow productions, their individual cultivation of the dembow sound is surely already noted. But, together their party powers are amplified, more holistic, and bound to ring home with dancers, DJs, and headphone strollers across the world.