Füete Billete - “Trå” / “Una Changa (feat. Yung Beef)"

Last year saw Füete Billete take a victory lap with “Buena Vida,” then later boisterously declare “Somos Hp” as they raged to trap. The two cuts were welcome treats, but the Puerto Rican crew was also due for a clear-cut banger worthy of Música de Capsulón’s legacy. The latest single from the rap trio’s upcoming album Papelón City might just be an answer to our prayers, if not that, then at least a much needed supplement to our summer playlists.

“Trå,” which was released as a music video a few weeks ago, is a hyper dance track with rap verses stacked between strobe lights, filthy beats, and West Coast touches. Pepper Kilo and BB Johnson’s flow is so effortless that the refrain “muévelo” overtakes the imperative and transforms itself into a pure celebration. B-side "Una Changa," backed by PXXR GVNG’s Yung Beef, continues to idolize the night show with softened production not unlike Rae Sremmurd’s neon-soaked banger “Look Alive.” “‘Una Changa’ es una canción del verdadero poder que tienen las strippers en el club,” Kilo told i-D where the song originally premiered. Strip clubs have long been credited for their power to turn singles into actual hits. Here Füete Billete are ready to submit to all the seductive powers at work (“Ella es la que manda aquí”), which help set up Papelón City as an ambitious project we can’t wait to hear in full.

Video: Mock the Zuma feat. Jamez Manuel - "Octanaje"

When it comes to NAAFI, we don’t nearly have enough words to introduce them. All we can say is that the label feels like world citizen. Not only virtually, but also very well positioned in many of the most important places around the world in physical locations and online sessions. NAAFI is thriving, and we continue to applaud them enthusiastically.

Kevin Santana, from Ciudad Juárez in northern Mexico, aka Mock The Zuma has been involved with the experimental club music label for about five years now. He is one the most active artists in their roster, contributing with a number of guest mixes to their NTS radio show and playing at their three-day festival in Oaxaca. However, it’s hard to believe that Gauss is his first release for NAAFI. The seven-tracker features Chilean rapper Jamez Manuel, and follows previous releases for French bass label Fullfridge and the Venezuelan imprint Cocobass.

It’s the Jamez Manuel collab track that shows an unnerving, dense video for "Octanaje.” Directed by Federico Schott and shot in Xochitlán de las Flores, Hidalgo, the clip compiles images of the desert, a busy highway, burning, smoke, a cemetery, and someone brutally disposing of a body in the dead of night. Haunting images that further highlight this track as just another awe-inspiring taste from one of 2016's most intriguing EP so far.

Paul Marmota - "Aire"

Summer 2012 was my first trip to Mexico City. My second night out in el DF writer Enrique Coyotzi (now editor at Panamérika) took me to a María y José/Los Macuanos show at a club in the historic center (el Centro). At the time I knew nothing about the area, only that we walked a lot and took the metro at some point. And yet that image of coming up and seeing the Zócalo for the first time has stayed with me. Few things since have matched the compelling sensation produced in that new place, truly something unique.

That was almost four years ago. The show was actually hosted by NAAFI, the same brand that has emerged as emblematic of DF’s electronic underground. On my last trip to Mexico, the collective had set up at the Museo Jumex for a residency full of events and performances. NAAFI is now a name to trust, not just in the realm of nightlife but in all aspects of the city's music culture.

Paul Marmota, a Chilean producer now located in Mexico, lives up to this reputation with his upcoming three-song release on NAAFI’s own label. The single “Aire” instantly transports me back to that invigorating night in el Centro. Sirens encircle the song along with a blend of alarms and industrial crashes. These percussive tricks don’t really try to “turn up” as much as tantalize. In turning away from the restrictive club setting, “Aire” captures the sensory overload of a chaotic place. Still, it's a place that is impossible not to fall in love with.

Siete Catorce - EP2

EP2, Siete Catorce
NAAFI, Mexico
Rating: 82
by Enrique Coyotzi

Ever since moving to Distrito Federal in June, the 20-year old prolific Marco Polo Gutiérrez, better known as Siete Catorce, went from being Mexicali’s best kept secret to Mexico’s most talked about producer. His arrival to the capital was a game changer—a crucial event which shook the local independent and electronic community. Throwing almost every weekend surpassing shows heavily charged by stamina, Gutiérrez logically attracted fast interest, instituting his arcane yet welcoming sound on the tongue of tastemakers, colleagues and newly-converted fans.

Ruidosón’s youngest exponent is an unstoppable, youthful prodigy. Simultaneously working on many completely opposite but just as relevant side projects (Den5hion, Sin Amigos, Ignxrnce, amongst others), the ingenious boy has enjoyed major success while embarking seriousness under the Siete Catorce pseudonym. Unlike his eerie but still highly upbeat first EP (which was backed by a unsettling tale of the artist murdering his entire family), Siete Catorce goes into gloomier, regularly depressive spaces in the sturdy EP2 (his strongest release so far, along with this year’s Un EP Irrelevante as Den5hion), whose progressive production manifests growth, vision and freakish craftsmanship through far reaching guapachoso rhythms mixed with avant-garde soundscapes.

The 6 tracks comprising EP2 are searing. Each of them effectively evokes a series of disturbingly high-strung emotions (from desperation, to anger, to fury) whilst properly injecting the listener the yearning of non-stop dancing. It may not result as immediately engaging as Siete's previous reference. However, repeated listens clearly define said assortment as a step forward into a more mature direction, where mental bad trips plus physical agitation operate as something natural. From its spacious introduction to its detonation into horror cumbia, the feverish opener “Flor de Lirio” sets the frenzied mood. Coincidentally (or intentionally?) clocking at 4:20, the marching, tribal-fueled, pill-appetizer “Roche Dos” atmospherically fucks the listener’s mind, affecting like a heavy THC hit. “Éter” and “Perdido” nervously trace Siete’s penetrating melancholic notes, acquiring abstruse emotional connection thanks to his instinctive talent for juxtaposing moody environments with full-blooded tempos. On the other hand, “Verdad,” with its Televisa-opening sample that progressively gets clearer, and “Somnolencia,” set across an enveloping build up that derives into nostalgic cognizance, bring out the EP’s sharp distressing angle.

Everything points that Siete Catorce’s career is destined to take off into even larger heights. Not only has he proven to be a one of a kind revelation, the skillful visionary’s also settled a standard of execution, idiosyncrasy and inventiveness pretty difficult to be matched. Fact is, it doesn’t seem crazy to state that with the prominent EP2, Gutiérrez (who's already preparing a third installment) has, for sure, dethroned Erick Rincón as Mexico’s youngest, smartest and most forward-thinking producer.