- The label of the year finishes 2022 with a bang.
- Seeing the announcement for TraTraTrax's first compilation, no pare, sigue sigue ("don't stop, keep going"), I was transported back to the feeling when Hessle Audio released their 116 & Rising collection back in 2011. Here was an era-defining label at the absolute top of its game taking a victory lap and showing just how creative and boundary pushing it can be. TraTraTrax, run by a trio of Colombian DJs, feels like it could be this decade's Hessle Audio, pushing trends, defining scenes and putting out the kind of tracks you hear almost every DJ play at least one point each summer. At the forefront of an international Latin club sound that sprouted in Mexico City and Miami and now connects hotspots across the world, no pare, sigue sigue is a survey of the artists who are pushing global club music into new sounds, comfort zones and tempos, led by artists like Nick León, DJ Babatr, Nicola Cruz and Lila Tirando a Violeta. It would sound like the future if it didn't sound so much like right now.
The music on no pare, sigue sigue ranges from reggaeton and perreo to straight up techno, and lots of wonderful liminal zones in between. It starts with heart-palpitating tribal prog from Verraco, whose mishmash of genres sets up the ride well, and blazes through surprisingly aggressive cuts from artists like Nicola Cruz (whose "Acelera" is belligerently catchy), Dengue Dengue Dengue and Lila Tirando a Violeta, inviting these artists to try their hand at the label's hard-edged style. The latter's collaboration with Sin Maldita, "Consonante Rótica," is a major highlight, mashing together glitch-hop with broken techno for a noisy banger that sounds like it would swallow up everything around it in a DJ mix.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the compilation is how it seems to have built up a scene that barely relies on the usual Anglophone clubbing hot spots (outside of Miami, anyway). Raptor house ingenue DJ Babatr reps Venezeula with the powerful, shoulder-checking groove of "Cabo E," while Brazil's Mari Herzer touches on dubstep with the churning highlight "Solta o Grave Alucinado," and Safety Trance—the newest alias of another Venezuelan staple, Cardopusher—makes reggaeton with the emotional uplift and physical heft of trance on "Indiferencia." And for that cutting-edge Latin tribal techno sound, look no further than the steely ripple of Bitter Babe's "Nadie Lo Puede Parar," or Nick León's athletic collaboration with Luca Durán, pairing guttural vocals with icy trap touches.
I'm far from the first person to make the connection between TraTraTrax and Hessle Audio. A Crack piece highlighted the connection, with Nick León saying that most people in the Miami scene are intimately familiar with the UK label. But the similarity is spiritual rather than sonically—like the best and most inventive labels before, TraTraTrax is creating its own world, taking fragments of scenes and sounds before and turning them into a glittering new hybrid. From Tómas Urquieta's gnarly techno to Doctor Jeep's punch-drunk junglism, no pare, sigue sigue is packed with new ideas for old genres, taking inspiration from cities and countries around Latin America rather than the usual UK-US hubs. It's not just a new generation of producers but a new paradigm of dance music, and chances are we'll be hearing a lot more of it in 2023. Keep going.
Tracklist01. Verraco - Ronaldinho hace la elástica
02. Nick León x Luca Durán - Joga Bola
03. Nicola Cruz - Acelera
04. Bitter Babe - Nadie lo puede parar
05. DJ Babatr - Cabo E
06. Doctor Jeep - Prisma De Luz
07. Loris - Azud
08. Lila Tirando a Violeta x Sin Maldita - Consonante Rótica
09. Mari Herzer - Solta o Grave Alucinado
10. DNGDNGDNG x Prisma - Distal RKT
11. OCTUBRXLIBRV - Kalunga
12. PVSSY x Entrañas - Insidia
13. Tomás Urquieta - K9999
14. Safety Trance - Indiferencia
15. DJ Pai - Aleteo 1
16. DJ Sosa RD - Mami QTQ