Antonio Gallardo is rapidly becoming the busiest man in the Latin underground, releasing music at a breakneck pace through four different active projects. Though María y José and Tony Gallardo II are his longest running professional aliases, two new personas entered the stage at the turn of the year. First to manifest was Boi Patrol, a DJ with a fast, dark, and aggressive house sound that visually and thematically references Gallardo’s recurring ski mask and police clash imagery. Then came El Capricho, a fuzzy surf-tinged garage rock stream of consciousness. If fully developed, it could become his most divergent project to date, with live performances that would include a session drummer – a major departure from Gallardo’s minimal one-man laptop format.
https://soundcloud.com/elmariayjose/sets/boi-patrol-4ghettin-ep
Gallardo is enthusiastic about his new projects, having just dropped #4GHETTIN’, Boi Patrol’s first EP, comprised of two polished techno bangers. Boi Patrol seems to be Gallardo’s idea of becoming a serious house DJ; he trades María y José’s raw punk persona and Tony Gallardo II’s poppy synths for sleek rave fodder. On the flip side, Gallardo’s first proper release as El Capricho is in the form of “XXIX,” a devastating lo-fi dedication to a friend who died of a heroin overdose. The track samples “Ana” by Los Saicos, though Beach Boys and 60s soul influences are also clear, and an accompanying album named Grandes Caprichos is in the works.
Ultimately, these new projects allow Gallardo to explore the full range of his creativity, and though María y José is still his most successful and recognizable incarnation, it’s good to see room for experimentation and growth in the man’s process. There’s no way of telling what he’ll drop on us next, but it will surely be cool, weird, and undoubtedly Tony.