Spanish-born, LA-based Luis Miranda takes his peak-time energy and channels it into a grittier, more rugged techno sound on Christian Smith’s Tronic Label with his latest EP, “Gallofa.”
It’s lovely to see Tronic coming back to a staple sound. You know the type… big, strong, funky, and with heavy cuts that command strength and real artistic grit. Miranda really delivers here, especially on the powerful and very sick track, “Hulud.” Here we have synthesized toms and gritty, in-your-face kick shadow rumbles, giving way to a few different vignettes and combinations of each element, letting you explore these combinations until the most important one comes forward towards the end, with that stripped-down tom and kick shadow groove at the 3:50 mark. It’s such an incredibly satisfying, strong, and bangin’ techno groove. Kind of makes you wish there was a full extended version of just this part. However, if you just go right back to the beginning, you’ll find this is exactly where the song came in. All the tension parts that came before had to exist to set up this amazing moment in the track, and it’s absolutely stellar.
If you’re looking for something extra along the lines of that last combo in “Hulud”, Oscar Escapa’s remix takes that base layer and turns it into an expression of continuing evolving layers, gritty, intense, distorted, and filled with energy and atmosphere.
The title track, helmed by Luis Miranda, starts off as an infectiously gritty and distorted punchy chord that seems like it could be a fun and upbeat chord-based track until the break provides a changeover towards a stripped back and focused techno groove. Almost to say, with adept strength, this is all that matters. And on the dance floor where you’re sure to be jacking, it’s all that does.
On “Plucky,” the synth plucks do have the main idea where they are revolving in space. And the tension parts seem to interact with it in an almost narrative sense, until, again, we’re led back to the warm embrace of Miranda’s expert funky groove theory in the latter half of the track. Understated, it sits in the pocket with a perfect amount of swing.
Fhase 87’s remix throws down a late 90s linear rendition of “Plucky” that reminds one of the Question series, possibly Mankind, with Johan Bacto, or even your regular Christian Smith track from that era.
The big takeaway from this release is a renewed appreciation for Luis Miranda’s amazing sense of groove timing. What could be full tracks on their own, being somewhat funky but mechanically driven ideas stripped down and minimally layered, but time and again on this release, we’re led away from such a simplistic idea. While masterful and completely amazing statements, these absolutely banging groove patterns really do need the proper setup with something that is the antithesis of that to make them shine. Some 5-10 second clips at the ends of Miranda’s tracks, you actually want to hear a full new track out of them, but of course, he has so much more to say. For that reason, we’ll just let him cook.
You’d be very hard pressed to find such a heavy, fun, funky, and danceable track this week, or in the latter half of last year, that goes from thoughtful to bangin’ and incredibly sick all in the span of under 5 minutes a track. On that front, as previously stated, Luis Miranda really delivers.
-Sean Ocean
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