The elusive Barcelona duo Desert, founded by El Guincho collaborator Cristina Checa and Eloi Caballé, first came onto our radar in 2012 with their single “Camins.” The song showed up on their two-track debut the following year; afterwards, the pair released a gorgeous EP in 2014, titled Envalira, and have worked in soundtracks for TV, film, and advertising very quietly. So excuse us if we geek out every time a piece of music from Desert is released to the world.
A couple of weeks ago, Cascine announced a Desert release on their off-shoot singles label CSCN, and shared its title track “Sense Likes.” Its sunny, mellow waves of Balearic house and surprising hints of trap-pop hint at a sonic update for the duo, while maintaining the charm that made us fall in love with them in the first place. Now, we’re premiering another one of the three tracks from the EP.
“Encara,” which means “still” in Catalan, follows the club inclinations of “Sense Likes,” and switches the focus back and forth between Checa’s velvety vocals and Caballé’s driving but delicate production work. The singer glides through lyrics about searching for something, but not really knowing what it is, complementing the emotive ride the instrumentation takes us on. According to the band, the EP revolves around the concept of opposites and contradictory feelings; although “Encara” does sound like it’s reconciling their romantic side with their club-ready tendencies, there’s no doubt all the elements synthesize to accomplish a sole goal: moving us to the core.