Expert in creating immersive experiences more than regular discs, Mix Bodega resorts to his usual tradition of naming his works in the masculine singular to now present his third full-length, “Dennis” (24); a tubular and captivating exodus through the most dreamlike and experimental side of electronics that will make us question the fine line that separates reality from utopia.
Salvador Navarrete, the man behind the alias in question, let us know with his first previews that his intention with this album was to infect us with the confusion and bewilderment that defined his life a couple of years ago. And frankly, he could not have chosen a more successful color palette to portray and formulate in eleven tracks a mood as fragile, diffuse and unfocused as the one he recalls here. Although we can delimit its almost forty minutes into two clearly distinguishable segments (with a wilder beginning and a progressive darkening of the forms), its digital and enveloping narrative will naturally incite us to want to listen to the album as a whole and without arrests. Let it communicate with us and passively surrender to its dissonant sequence of beats that will accelerate and pause our spirit at will.
After a whirlwind of frenetic synths (from the hand of “Adulter8” and its vitaminized Persian melodies) and a curious avalanche of sampled and pitched voices (with a “Elk Skin” of syncopated rhythms that will remind us of the best Nicolas Jaar), the album reaches its majestic and cathedral peak thanks to “Kepko”the lead single from the album and a canonical journey (if this name fits into Sega’s work) through the tropes of its discourse: dark techno, intelligible voices, glitched hyperpop hoops and an uncontrolled frenzy that will shake us to the point of exhaustion. .
Twinned by the same introspective aura, “Set Me Free, I’m An Animal” (a grunge trompe l’oeil that cuts the air) and “Deer Teeth” (the perfect definition of how to get excited without taking us off the dance floor) slow down the cadence of the album until it spawns in a flurry of cinematic anthems (“True”) and cumbiero trance (“Humiliation Doesn’t Leave a Mark”) that underline its thoughtful intention and dignify the most decaffeinated section of the album.
Playing the most unpredictable cards in the deck and pouring all types of genres into the same pot without prejudice or limit, this Irish producer of Chilean origin makes it clear to us with his third album that launching without a net into the most courageous abysses is now a common part. and fundamental of its dynamics. With echoes of the work we’ve seen him do recently as a producer for other stars (especially for Shygirl and Caroline Polachek’s latest projects), “Dennis” It perfectly encapsulates Sega Bodega’s artistic progression and aptly reflects its unique ability to redefine today’s electronics.