Paul Marmota started his journey to the dark underbelly club music at 17, when he started experimenting with beat making on his home computer. Starting with those early explorations, the Chilean producer has evolved into one of the major players in the current global vogue of dark, deconstructed club music that currently has pop music transfixed.
Somehow, Marmota, a one-time NAAFI affiliate, never got around to releasing a full album. Happily, today, his project Adaptación sees the light. Clocking in at 10 songs, his first full-length is by no means a departure from the producer’s past body of work. Rather, it is an addition to his catalog of pitch-black missives from the creepy edges of club, or perhaps a retrospective. He recently told Noisey Mexico that he’s been holding onto many of its tracks for years, plotting on an opportune time for their deployment.
The late-night vampires that populate Marmota’s dance floors will find much to love on the feature-free Adaptación LP. This is how you do it, for those of you arriving late to the dungeon games. “Maleanteo” is a bare-bones track, an exercise in how few sonic elements Marmota needs to spin his webs. “Gio” is full of dramatic pause, a cerebral tease for dancers. The sound of “0619” hinges on cyborg, animalistic groans and tremulous fairy chords. The songs are invitations to lose track of thought, an attractive proposition in times of high-pitched global upheaval.
Adaptación marks Marmota’s transition to Lit City Trax, the Manchester-based label that has also released recent works by London’s Blay Vision and Lisbon’s DJ Marfox. It’s not his only fresh affiliation these days; Marmota has also been logging hours in the studio with vocalists, particularly in Spain, where a recent trip saw him recording with Yung Beef, Khaled, Kaydy Cain, El Mini, La Favi, MC Buseta, and dancehall upstart Bad Gyal, with whom he recently put out a single.
Their track, “Nicest Cocky,” which dropped right when Bad Gyal was announcing her first tours in the Western Hemisphere, is an eerie upheaval of traditional dancehall rhythms. Marmota’s talent for expanding the auditory footprint of Caribbean dance music, rather than creating tepid copies, is on full display. The artists looking to hop on the reggaeton/dancehall/dembow train would do well to enlist seasoned producers like him, with established talent for innovation, rather than approximation.
Paul Marmota’s Adaptación is out now on Lit City Trax.