Pairing the Colombian singer’s voice with the New York producer’s wistful electronic hybrids, this brief but endearing EP feels like a set of missives sent from the depths of a daydream.
On paper, Ela Minus and DJ Python are a woefully ill-fitting combination. Minus is a purveyor of combative, hard-edged techno and coldwave; her lyrics, often revolving around calls for rebellion or resistance against amorphous higher powers, give her songs the redolence of protest music, even if they are sometimes too vague to parse on a political level. Python, on the other hand, is prone to giving endearingly shitposty interviews but makes dance music with a soft touch and a gauzy, achingly romantic spirit. Minus’ music is throwback, nodding to New Order and ’80s European electronic styles, but focused firmly on the future; Python’s has a nostalgic and wistful air about it, even though his trademark fusion of reggaeton and house is quietly innovative. Despite their outward mismatch, though, something about their disparate sensibilities just seems to work together: ♡ (pronounced “corazón”), their new collaborative EP, is one of the best projects either artist has put their name to, a deft and moving dance record that feels casual but profoundly intimate.
At three songs, ♡ is all too brief, but it still covers a lot of ground; unlike Python’s most recent record, January’s Club Sentimientos Vol. 2, ♡ works as well as three distinct songs as it does as a suite of plush, wobbly mood music. The record’s final track, “Pájaros en Verano” (“Birds in Summer”) encapsulates the vibe of the whole EP. Over Python’s gentle, marimba-like synths, Minus sings about the relief of experiencing a relationship after an isolating pandemic:
After all the days that never happened
And the nights that didn’t exist
I can’t complain
’Cause I got you
Now I don’t want to live a life without you
Where the vagueness of Minus’ lyrics can sometimes work against her, the empty space she leaves here is welcome; it’s a pandemic-era track that mourns for lost time without getting weighed down by unnecessary specifics. Python’s work—he composed and produced the instrumentals, which Minus wrote lyrics and melodies to—is as tasteful and restrained as ever, but there’s a driving force to his synth melody that, combined with Minus’ soft, guileless vocal, almost makes the track feel like a chic update of Adrian Lux’s 2010 indie-EDM classic “Teenage Crime,” ridding that song of its extremely era-specific build while retaining its weary optimism.
“Pájaros en Verano” is ♡’s most specifically pandemic-related song, but its themes hang in the air on the rest of the EP. On “Abril Lluvias Mil,” Minus stews in regret over past relationships (“Everything you once said and you wish you could take back/Everyone you once hurt and you wish you could hold now”) over a faint, dubby synthline and barely there dembow beat, one of Python’s signatures. Like HTRK, Python and Minus use dub to convey a kind of pervasive yearning: The fractured, decaying synth line mirrors Minus’ lyrics about loss, a musical palimpsest that becomes more amorphous and distorted the closer you get to it.
These songs are simple, and they’re very much within Python’s wheelhouse: Any of these instrumentals, with their glassy new-age synth tones and slight, muffled beats, could easily slot in on Club Sentimientos Vol. 2. But when Minus sings over them, they feel dramatically different—like love letters or diary entries, missives sent from the depths of someone else’s daydream. Even “Kiss U,” little more than a looping beat and a few lines repeated by Minus, has a compelling, romantic softness to it: “My world has ended many times before/But now that you’re in it/None compare.” The lyrics themselves are nothing special—as vague, if not more so, as anything on Minus’ 2020 album acts of rebellion. But the plain, even mournful tone of her voice feels vastly different when set to Python’s spacious, heavenly beat. The softness of Python’s music has unlocked a new depth to her performance; by the same token, the profound sadness that Minus hints at gives his work, which can occasionally feel like vibe music, a new sense of gravity. They may seem like opposites, but the synergy of Minus and Python’s collaboration feels like a testament to what Minus preaches across ♡: The blissful harmony of two souls finding each other.
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