Still in a state of shock, a new wind of appeasement comes to cuddle us. Synthesized pads are hovering, just like the ones of the first moments of Grial. It is the end of the journey, the moment when you think back about all the events which just occurred. And suddenly, you are alone, on the platform, with the sound of the train leaving with its story as your only companion.
Field recording are the key stones of this album
Insurgentes is a Columbian label, founded in the Medellin mountains in 2017 by Verraco and Defuse. Their objective is simple: to focus on electronic music producers from Latin America and send their message beyond the Columbian borders. And it is a success—the singular sound of the Columbian electronic scene has nothing to envy to the rest of the world. For four years, Insurgentes offers electronic gems oscillating between ambient and braindance and always composed with this abstract and experimental signature which makes them unique.
The label cofounder Verraco is also the more prolific artist of the structure. He signed the first three EPs of the label between 2017 and 2018. Thus, he drew, with his refined breakbeat, the runway of the label which does not stop since to gain altitude with mature, innovative, and emotive releases. After two years of silence, Verraco returned on his label last October with a long format named Grial.
Grial’s opening is an untitled track. The synthetic pad is followed by an abstract and powerful rhythm; to entities which complete and answer one another on a field recording bed. With this fuzzy outlined track, Verraco introduces an album which bounces between serenity and violence, between nature and technology. The pieces are stunned by their precise sound design, their different speed level interpretation and by the strong message which comes out of their unity.
Though it remains discrete, the field recording are the key stones of this album. It is a call to travel, an immersion, a comprehensive tool that Verraco gives us to help him carry us. During the first tracks, nature recordings are here to support harmony. This harmony raises us, carried by the clear tones of Pluriverso, the encouraging lead of “NRG Remains” or the stretched and modulated voice of “Sur — Furia.” The drum work adds an electric atmosphere. The glitched snares, the resonating stab kicks or the over bright and saturated fills hustle our mind’s serenity. We thought we were evolving in a calm and boundless sky; we are just in the eye of the storm. Though we are still spared from their fierceness, we are surrounded by the element’s fury.
The album’s beginning is a contemplative moment; a flyover of a landscape which is still difficult to discern; and a loss of height. Indeed if, during the first tracks, we do not have our feet on the ground, we are getting closer to it. It is the fifth track, “Abya Yala,” which get us out of the clouds. Abya Yala is the name used by the Native American nation to design America, as a reject of a name descending from a colonial and violent past. I would not be able to talk about traditional music from Columbia, however, I believe I can affirm without many risks that “Abya Yala” is a tribute to forbidden times, paid by sounds which refer to traditional percussions. Moreover, the field recording of nature, in which birdsongs can be clearly identified, is supported by a noisy sound design whom electronic results merges with the scream of nature. This confusing union can also be heard in the first track. Thus, it shares the beauty of Columbian landscapes while reminding us that their existence is threatened. This track name seems to raise the hole thematic of this album, and with it what burns in the heart of the Medellin’s insurgents: the will to defend their independence and their identity, the will to be the only writers of their History. With “Abya Yala,” Verraco operates the landing on the Columbian ground, and he impatiently waits to make us discover its shapes.
Verraco is now guiding us through a percussive madness, a rhythmic frenzy. Disconcert at first glance, we do not know the Grial’s codes. Guidelines arrives soon enough thanks to the snare fills of “+Decodification__.” Here we enter in a braindance universe as never seen before. The drum’n bass samples are shaking us with their mad energy. In “Breaking Hegemonies,” a slow pattern is highlighted with a determinate, noisy and syncope snare, which sees itself overwhelmed with more bright percussive soaring. The charging gun sample is premonitory: we might lose a trail of blood behind.
Grial reveals its violence. Synthesizers let the bass frequencies fill the spectrum and penetrate our stomach; the acid is clear and aggressive; among a short and pungent scream, “Traición (10mente mix)” becomes almost warlike. In the same track, the afterbeat is highlighted with a floating echo like processed snare. It puts us on our guard, on alert.
No doubts now: we are on the ground. And this ground, which was unknown a few minutes before, trembles under our feet.
Still in a state of shock, a new wind of appeasement comes to cuddle us. Synthesized pads are hovering, just like the ones of the first moments of Grial. It is the end of the journey, the moment when you think back about all the events which just occurred. And suddenly, you are alone, on the platform, with the sound of the train leaving with its story as your only companion.
Abya Yala—that means “land in its full maturity.” It is just like Grial. And like Insurgentes which keeps elevating itself, a label which will soon orbit around the electronic music planet and coat it with its insurrectionary waves.
Grial is available on Insurgentes. [Bandcamp]
