After 3 years of self imposed hiatus, Pedro Infame, one of the most prolific, yet elusive, producers from the Latin diaspora, returns with a new album (Yo no estoy Loco, Yo lo que quiero es comer gente) under the Mexican Dj/Collective Tropic-All. Infame who was raised in a big city in Venezuela, used to listen to metal and salsa, and in his teenage years moved to a Mexican town called Aguascalientes where he was suddenly surrounded by corridos, banda, cumbia and more Mexican related folklore.
Yo no estoy loco captures his signature sound; Mexican pop-culture in high unadulterated doses, mashed up with a macho-core aggressive raver sound, trap, bass, and some evil basslines – it’s a dark yet tropical take that is both chaotic and cohesive. The album was conceived a-la-Beck; in other words, as a whole concept with no featured artists to hype the release (an arguably daring choice in an era when everyone collaborates). Like a designer who drapes his muse in a shimmering dress, Infame has cleverly selected samples that show the craft in several tracks. He leaves it up to the listener to decide when they’ve had too much candy.
This album was three years in the making, which could be considered too long if you produce music on a computer. But the Venezuelan-Mexican producer makes up for it by crafting tangents for those who like to explore the unexplored. He strikes hard on his first track “Deja de escuchar MIERDA,” which functions both as a satire of those trap-fest long intros as well as a short explanation for his long hiatus. Over crescendoing, ominous dub sounds, we hear the voicemails of an increasingly concerned friend, worried that Pedro’s taste in music has suddenly gone to shit. “Hey Pedro, que cansa guey como estas? Te hablo porque estoy sacado de onda de que la otra vez que te vi pasar en tu troca ‘pos traías una música bien horrenda mano!,” the friend says. It’s a fitting warning for the next 10 tracks – this is not music for the conventional.
Next comes “Vulgar Sampling,” which begins with a sample of Anonymus’ el anticristo (who gets a hilarious whole feature in a track further down in the album). This track is exactly what Infame is all about: fun, kinky, satanic party bass that is – to borrow a phrase from Romeo Santos – “so nasty.” It’s hard to imagine any other mixing heavy drum and bass, mind-melting drops and samples from the sabroso side of bass (El General!).
The jewel of the album, “El trap del Olvido,” is perhaps the most “Mexican” track of the whole EP, but still manages to detach itself from any one context when the bridge comes in, somehow swerving into Latin-house before going back to its hardcore “ganga-trap.”
https://soundcloud.com/tropic-all/pedro-infame-matando-hipsters?in=tropic-all/sets/pedro-infame-yo-no-estoy-loco
In all, Yo no estoy loco, Yo lo que quiero es comer gente is a punch in the face – a tropi-hell from with the same mix of darkness and humor that made This is the End a hilarious movie.