- Swirling, analogue club tracks from Medellín.
- If you examine the vinyl of the newest release from Matias Aguayo's Cómeme label, you'll find an engraving that reads: "Celebrating life—Medellín." The inscription was commissioned by Gregorio Gómez, better known in the Colombian electronic music scene as Gladkazuka, who has just released his latest EP, The Drop. During the 2000s, Gómez was part of the Series Media collective, a small group of musicians and enthusiasts, including Lucrecia Dalt, that helped shape the Medellín scene. Later on, Gómez became one of Aguayo's closest associates, joining the Cómeme family in 2013 with the track "El Untitled." He's also in Aguayo's krautrock band, The Desdemonas, and jams with the collaborative project Rionegro.
The Drop is Gladkazuka in his best form yet, and doesn't skimp on analogue sounds. "Naturalia" and "El Coral" could soundtrack a tropical storm, with powerful synth lines that seemed to have sprouted from the mountain slopes surrounding Medellín, while the title track lends a delicate emotional feeling to the EP. As the inscription says, The Drop indeed celebrates life—the life of a city that has left behind its violent history to become a sonic epicenter of South America.
TracklistA1 Naturalia
A2 Flancing
A3 The Drop
B1 El Coral
B2 Doblan
B3 Doblan (No Beats)