Being an artist means you’re in constant motion, trying to find a new channel or approach to your craft or vision. Anyone who’s made music knows that once you find the right road to travel, creativity can flow freely and easily.
This is exactly what happened to Edgar Mondragón. The Mexican artist started a solo project under his own name, releasing several EPs of atmospheric, glitchy, and warped electronic melodies. At the time, he was a Ssensorial crew affiliate who released through the long-running Mexican cult label Abolipop/Suplex and built a reputation of forward-thinking music. But last year, Mondragón expanded into a full band, incorporating acoustic drums and electric guitars to yield a new sound. Although they have already played a few shows together, this new phase of the project will see their debut in the form of a full-length album made possible thanks to a very successful Kickstarter campaign. The resulting record, Presentimiento, will be available in May, both digitally and physically in the form of a LP.
We’re premiering the lead single “Repite,” and it’s a good preview of what Mondragón has in store for us. The band takes the project’s former electronic identity and breathes new life into it. Everything sounds much livelier, with elements of shoegaze, post-rock, and psych circling in the shadows. Funnily enough, “Repite” recycles the bassline from a previous Mondragón track, “Repite El Nombre Cien Veces;” instead of remaking the song with a live band, it mutates into its own beast, a very apt metaphor for the evolution of this project.
On April 14, Edgar will be playing a solo Mondragón show at La Sala of La Cantina Royal Brooklyn, New York along with another Mexican project, Todavía No Sabemos Nada, and two U.S.-based projects, Jackie Mendoza and Ika. Without Walls, a Mexican-New York collective, put together the show to bridge electronic scenes between both countries. For more information, click here.