By José Gandue @Gandour
We're back to the healthy habit of fluttering around the music platform Bandcamp, We're always eager to hear surprises from the Latin American music scene, and we always find something to our liking. This time we went to southwestern Colombia, to the Pacific coast. and we find ourselves with a healthy proposal for the renewal of what is generically called "urban music"« (a label that, in itself, doesn't mean much, but brings together the different sonic strands that emerged from the great expansion of hip hop around the world, especially in our continent). In Tumaco, a city of just over two hundred and fifty thousand people, whose population is mostly Afro-descendant and indigenous, very close to the border with Ecuador, lives Verito Asprilla, who, at just 18 years old, intends (and hopefully succeeds) to give a new look to the most popular dance rhythms of the moment.
His work, as presented in his first EP, called Purple World, It's a special combination of trap, dancehall, and reggaeton., To which is added the ancestral richness of the musical expression of his region. For the author of this article, who confesses to being exasperated by the commercial tunes that are usually played on the dance floors of the most tropical venues, there is a particular ingredient that Asprilla brings to her recordings that makes all the difference: What she does sounds natural, authentic, fun, and varied., using with respect and, at the same time, courage, the traditional sounds that surround it.
All songs released under the label Pacific Records, have been composed and performed by ZooMusic, JPMusic, Melvi la Matraka, Verito Asprilla and Yazon tu Favorito. This production was handled by Yazon tu Favorito, Cerrero and Iván Benavides and was mastered by Frank Merritt at Carvery Studio in the UK. From its first track, So they can dance, Asprilla extends an implicit and seductive invitation to move the body, to celebrate life, and, of course, to realize that the "urban" (we return to this word) It has the potential to break with the established patterns and acquire a much fresher, more inspiring, more interesting rhythm. Let's hope she continues her, for the moment, promising career.
