Mexico City producer Tau (aka Cristian Cayetano) conceptualized his Lotus Netlabel-released Castaway EP as the story of someone who loses sight of land. “A Violent Tide,” premiering today on Remezcla, maps the climax, the violent moment in which our protagonist’s ties to the world are cut. The plying future bass deconstruction starts out softly, a sunny day whose pace quickens until cardinal directions fail and the sky and sea’s blue merge into 360 degrees of submarine upheaval. “A Violent Tide” is where Tau realizes the aggression that lies just under the surface of daily life’s platitudes, a rumination on how close we are all to being castaways ourselves.
It’s a rather cinematic construct for Cayetano, whose work can often be seen has part of a wave of peers experimenting with cloudy, trap-influenced beats (Tau recently appeared alongside Chile’s mlshbts and Guadalajara’s Phynx on 808 Baes’ Valentine’s Day mixtape). A host of other young beatmakers have channeled their energy into instrumentals for R&B’s Valium generation — or seen through another pair of dark glasses, trap’s romántico moment.
For Tau, “A Violent Tide” and Castaway mark a moment in which he’s drifting from known shores. Though he and his kin are starting out with of-the-moment sounds, the true extent of their talents is just surfacing.
Tau’s Castaway EP is out August 15 via Mexico City’s Lotus Netlabel.