Bogotá’s Mitú continue to churn out an entrancing catalog that is altogether catastrophic to the senses, giving us techno-trance tracks to lose yourself to. The newest release via Polen Records, “Obisi,” premiered last week with a new video to accompany the track.
The duo of multi-instrumentalist/MIDI expert Julian Salazar and percussionist Franklin Tejedor of San Basilio de Palenque transform rhythms deeply rooted in Afro-Colombian culture. However, the traditions represented in each Mitú track are lovingly warped and whittled to an “essentialized” version of their former selves, become nearly unrecognizable.
The video was made by Salazar in the same countryside cabin where the track was recorded. The black and white, strobe-inflected video dives deeper into the techno-futurist ritualism that Mitú is carving out for themselves, as seen previously in the similarly transcendent video for “Domini.”
In a stark contrast to recent exports from Colombia, Mitú is decidedly not interested in dabbling in the nostalgic, sabrosura-bending representations we’ve seen in other tropical bass and cumbia re-releases; Mitú present a techno-futurist vision of Bogotá, every bit reflective of the socio-political climate that underlies the party spirit.