If you spaced on Valentine’s Day, if you left it until the last minute to decide who was going to get your love, or even if you have the clothes-free slow dance all planned out and just need the soundtrack, we have the same all-points bulletin for you: 808 Baes just released its Valentine’s Day compilation. The Mexico-based collective’s soft storm of cloudy R&B – paired with a lap dance with feeling – is all you need to let your 808 bae know that they’re special on this Día de Amor y Amistad.
808 Baes is the brainchild of Guadalajara’s Phynx and Mexico City’s Tau, two young producers who saw a need to unite the efforts of their smoothest peers from Mexico to Chile. The collective started unleashing its slow-mo, laid-back music last year, paired with compelling dog imagery (P.S., if your Valentine is a Shiba Inu fan, make sure they see the label’s album art before you lay it on them. These boys know how to play on our deepest internet obsessions). The last compilation, which was released to coincide with Día de los Muertos, throws a macabre filter on easeful, largely vocal-free instrumentals from artists like Zapopan’s Washi Hana and DaFuture’s Upper.
The collective’s roster is a who’s-who of young Latin American producers exploring the soft outer limits of the trap universe, a lineup that is well prepared to provide the soundtrack to affection in 2017. The Valentine’s Day mixtape is full of tales of true love, or at least foggy windows. The tracklist features Calvo’s softly lilting lyrics on “Missed Call,” and a pair of tracks from Chilean producer mlshbts. First is “Poco A Poco,” a joint effort with one of his favorite collaborators, Chile’s Zerk (aka Ivan Gonzalez). The final track is “Modelame,” which all but moves your hips for you.