Former Finesse Records artist and designer of the label’s latest distinctive brand image Daniel Ceballos aka 1OO1O has been dropping luscious, ass dropping bangers since he introduced himself formally with last year’s Hotmelt EP. At this point, the concept behind 10010 is just as solid as the one his label colleague Adrian Be is bringing for 2015.
It’s always interesting to observe approaches to alternative dance music production from those who have roots in other digital enterprises. Daniel, is above all a designer, and he articulates his sonic ideas through visual concepts and aesthetics. “Even the music I love, play and listen to has a visual context that makes me get into it,” he says. “Electronic music, in general, has always had this visual counterpart. Design culture and electronic music culture is the most beautiful affair.”
It was only when he discovered garage-driven artists like Burial and 123mrk a couple years back that he started to cook up his musical project. Finesse Record boss Teen Flirt paved the way for 1OO1O’s debut, allowing him to start releasing some concrete work outside of the label. His most recent pieces focus on club oriented beats, namely juke, R&B, and something he describes as “future-weird-bassy-pop-dance(???)”. The influence of his alma mater label is clear in his work, but his intention is to experiment with new elements to further deepen his concept: “I’ve been also inviting a lot of producers to my studio, not on an agenda though, but I can say there are a lot of frankenstein collab projects with several producers that might see the light this year.”
It was recently that Daniel approached us with “Lessons,” and after a couple loops of the track, it was clear Remezcla had to give this up and coming cat our blessing. The single is evidence of his latest sonic fixations, a straight forward approach to dance with sensual, polyphonic synth melodies and pitch-worked vocals that reflect both the importance of his Finesse roots and everything that makes his sound unique. It also reminded me of a couple of tracks from the now defunct Pura Crema label in 2013, that focused on sensuality as a leit motif, a sort of deep porn groove house music. A big plus to this awesome piece is the army of remixes that comes along with it, including an all-star cast of Mexico’s underground up and comers for 2015 like Red Bro, Faded, Naked Geometry and BCOTB.
“First of all I’m a fan of all of them, I love their music, that’s why I asked them to remix ‘Lessons,’ because I wanted them to turn this really personal song into one of theirs. I’m really lucky to consider them friends and family too,” Daniel told us.
All these guys bring their signature moves to the track, but there’s an over all feeling of clubness to the work composed by bits of juke in BCOTB’s take, trap tool kits in MXMLST & Naked Geometry’s remix, and a spacey R&B/Pop flip by ECHOPLVY. Red Bro and MONVCO bring the more left field flavors to the table, shuffling different ideas at a fast pace and exploring the more complex aspects of the track’s samples. It’s a clear decision by the artist to push for local product before anything else, and he’s not alone. This is a trend we’ve seen more and more in various collectives and labels that derive from the arrival of bass-driven music in Mexico, and Daniel sees it as an important way to promote the surging local identity of the music. “I think being from the same country makes us share a similar context, which makes it really easy for us to connect with each other; but we all have different takes on this yet undefined subculture. Actually, I think all of them are defining the sound and identity of future bass in Mexico.”
The year is still young and Daniel hopes to keep remixing and working on releases that we’ll be sure to cover, so keep an eye on how this regiomontano producer’s work evolves. Listen to “Lessons” and don’t forget to check out Daniel’s design work for this piece on a special little site he made for the occasion.