- Downtempo deepness for early in the night or late in the morning.
- Anthony Naples' label Incienso has become synonymous with a hazy, wandering take on dance music. Whether the label's putting out otherworldly techno, bleepy minimal or starry-eyed pop, there's a singular vision for the weirder moments of the night. Alongside the usual suspects of trip-hop breaks and undulating chords designed for rolling spliffs, the label pushes the envelope for what counts as home listening and, conversely, what you can play in the club. This expansive approach to the club continuum makes Jonathan Trujillo, AKA Jonny From Space, a natural fit. On his debut LP, back then I didn't but now I do, the Miami producer turns in a dreamy record of downtempo breaks and sluggish techno.
The overall mood here is low and slow, but that doesn't mean Trujillo's tracks unfurl aimlessly. A track like "Hold & Release," for example, starts with a minute or two of loose drum fills and a guitar-like synth, before the percussion tightens up and the melody comes into clearer focus. It's the sort of track just begging for an adventurous DJ to mix a four-on-the-floor banger into. Still working with slower tempos, he flirts with techno on tracks like "Level Skip" and "Luna Dance." The former falls somewhere between an Acting Press and a 3XL release as reverb-drenched chords slowly grate across the stereo field in a post-industrial daze.
Elsewhere the tracks are a bit more intimate, for when twilight becomes actual daylight and it's just a few stragglers watching their conversations drift away like balloon strings. "Slip" is a sinister downtempo track with an anxiously bleeping synth, while "Crystal Eyes" reminds me of something Vanessa Daou would have sung over in the late '90s, with its chunky breakbeat and ambling sitar lead. Trujillo gets even more starry-eyed on "Run It" as a twinkling arpeggio bursts through the lethargic drums, like that final euphoric burst of energy in the Uber before crawling into bed at home.
So much of the club music coming out of Miami right now has a raw intensity to it. Trujillo's music is less hurried and more careful, though of a kind with his peers. There's an edge to his downtempo, whether it's the syncopated rhythms underneath the chopped bird calls on "Float" or the mechanical technicolor synths of "Live." Like the rest of the latest generation flying the Magic City flag, Trujillo is rewriting dance music conventions. Instead of wiry, dembow-inflected techno, he's taking classic tropes like chunky breakbeats and plaintive melodies and transforming them into the strangest chillout room songs around.
Tracklist01. Crystal Eyes
02. Luna Dance
03. Float
04. Level Skip
05. Live
06. Dream Reality
07. Hold & Release
08. Slip
09. Run It
10. Hearing Colors