A silky knot in the super-busy web of “HiperAsia”, “Pizza” is metal on velvet, the take of a robot on the smoothest ’90s R&B. It’s the kind of music computer people of the future would come up with if they had a thing for Common‘s early albums.

The video for the track was directed by Alberto Blanco, who, like Pablo, examplifies Barcelona’s peculiar and irresistible brand of swag. As anticipated, it’s a highly cinematographic homage to “The Wire”, its criminals and men in combats. His huge fur coat makes it clear but in case it wasn’t, the criminal here is Pablo himself. He acts as the head of a cartel that smuggles the best of all drugs, delicious addicting pizzas. We can all agree hiring black women in lingerie as servers is problematic and unsanitary but in the words of our polestar Britney, it’s all really exciting, urban and cool.

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“HiperAsia” is out now via Everlasting Records, CANADA and Nacional Records (in the US). Buy it here.

[su_dropcap style=”simple”]W[/su_dropcap]hich spell have the people of Spain cast onto themselves? They always find a way to be cooler than anybody else. And these two certainly are no exception. Everybody’s favourite pibe El Guincho and queen of hip hop ibérico Mala Rodríguez have joined forces for “Cómix”, the pulsating lead single off Pablo‘s wearable album “HiperAsia”.

Radio pop gone wrong, and beautifully so, “Cómix” is a destabilizing song, a collection of weird, surprising textures, now sleek, now grainy, that assault you from all sides but in mannered, likable way. Also, it’s catchy as hell. It’s disjointed but irresistible like a huge K-Pop single without the bullshit. With the robotic sheen of its heavily auto-tuned vocals and the brainiac, cocky lyrics, it’s fresh the way glass and steel are fresh. There is a strange sense of confused euphoria to it, something akin to a rush of excitement induced by sleep deprivation. It’s not a coincidence El Guincho recorded “HiperAsia” while living wildly in wild Madrid. The Chinese bazaars in and out the city provided inspiration for the sound and vibe of the album, which is full and disorienting but new and exciting too.
The video for “Cómix” was directed by CANADA, who became known internationally thanks to El Guincho himself and whose work might be more familiar to you than you realize. As it’s always the case with them, a bunch of uncanny things happen here as well: there are Gothic lettering, a customized car, thermic blankets, dudes getting physical, thrift store fashion worn in layers, La Mala being herself, a game of wig-snatching blindman’s bluff and boiled eggs. Watch below:

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“HiperAsia” is out February 12th via Everlasting Records, CANADA and Nacional Records, but you can already buy your wristband here.
If you’re not familiar with La Mala and her flamenco-infused hip hop, check out her latest singles, “Egoista” and “Mátale” below. They’re great.

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Five long years have passed since the incredible “Pop Negro” came into our lives but Pablo Díaz-Reixa hasn’t spent his time surfing in his native island or idling about in Barcelona. Not all of it at least. He produced records for fellow Spaniards Los Punsetes and Extraperlo, made beats under secret monikers, had a sonic cameo in Javiera Mena‘s pop masterpiece “Otra era” and worked as a programmer on Björk‘s ambitious “Biophilia”, whose unorthodox approach to music formats gave him the idea of a wearable album. Inspiration came also from more mundane sources: “Hiper Asia” is the name of huge stores in the Madrid area where items of all kinds are displayed next to each other with no apparent criterion.
Their sneaking sense of overload is rendered on the album through the use of stereo: voices and beats are heard on the center, while the sides are packed with details, silences, false starts and all kind of surprises which make for a disorienting but rewarding listen. You can check for yourself on “Mis Hits” and “Rotu Seco”, the first taste of what’s to come (or better, to wear).
They are sharp, upbeat and fun tracks as it’s always the case with El Guincho, and while the intense tropical flavor of his previous releases has been traded for something more metallic and robotic, the warmth is still there, intact, suave as fuck. They are very hard to categorize, too. Futuristic reggaeton? Rapless cyborg hip hop? Who needs categories for something so effortlessly cool anyway? Just listen.

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But the “HiperAsia” universe can be seen as well. The visuals directing studio Manson produced to illustrate the mechanisms and emotions behind the album feature the worst version of Pablo running, falling and kicking stuff in a videogame-y 3D dimension, an antidote to a virtual world where everybody is always on their fakest best behavior.

If the idea of musical clothing is not appealing to you, don’t worry. “HiperAsia” is going to be released in a more traditional manner on Everlasting Records and CANADA, January 29th.

Bonus :
“Pop Negro”
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