Houston duo, Santa Muerte, has announced that they’ll follow up December’s delectable pack of bootlegs for GHE20G0TH1K with their long-anticipated debut EP of original material, called Oraciones. Today we’re excited to share the brooding lead single, “Trembla,” produced in collaboration with French producer King Doudou. Centered around a woozy lead synth melody, the track’s savory, minor key ambiance hangs languidly while its percussive backbone does the lion’s share of the work, transforming the sense of slow sensuality into something infectious and brazen.
Each track on Oraciones finds Pancho Briones and Leroy Bella working with a different collaborator: Fake Accent‘s Kala and Bronx producer El Blanco Nino both make appearances, and NAAFI’s Imaabs closes things out with a remix. The EP will be out June 24 on the artists’ own MAJÍA label; as that day draws ever-closer, learn a little more about the artists from an interview we conducted via email below.
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THUMP: How did EP come about, and what sorts of things went into making it?
Santa Muerte: We released a series of bootlegs that helped introduce our vision into what we have been planning to do with our original music. Having collaborators also helped us show versatility in our sounds as well. Everyone who is part of this album from production, engineering, art, and marketing team are people we love to work with and have respect for. The EP originated about 9 months ago. We had started a few collaborations and decided we needed to present an EP after our series of bootlegs had been very successful. We took all of our backgrounds of music making from club music to reggaeton and meshed them all together to put into this release.
How would you characterize your collaborative dynamic? What made you two start working together?
We been good friends for a while, both working on individual projects. We decided that it would be fun to work on a musical project. We could have collaborated on an album together and released it with both our individual artist names and that would have been it. We wanted to create a musical project that would bring the theatrical ideas we had for a live or DJ set. We made this a musical project with more than just a collaboration in mind.
How does being based in Houston affect your music? Do you have close connections with any local scenes?
Houston is like a ex-girlfriend you still call every so often to get together, to find out you are not compatible and need to stay away hahaha… We find ourselves spinning and projecting ideas in other parts of the world. We feel more comfortable out of town. We have done two shows in Houston since we began, so we really don’t have any connections with local scenes. We feel a larger connection with local scenes that embrace us in LA, NYC or Mexico City. We do have a connection to some local rappers and some electronic producers in the city. Big ups Rabit, Beatking and Ape Drums.
Can you tell us a little bit more about “Trembla” specifically?
That track has an amazing background. It had been played by several producers like Zutzut and MA from Nguzunguzu and had great feedback, but once we began to talk to King DouDou we felt the need to have him collaborate on this track. We sent him the stems and let him have free range. A month went by and this sexy yet creepy masterpiece came back. We got so hyped we kept replaying the track. We been having this track almost six months and the moment we felt a peak was when we got the masters for the EP—it felt so alive and exciting to hear this amazing collaboration.
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