The sounds of Africa and its diaspora, which crosses the Atlantic all the way to Venezuela, are the main ingredients of his debut EP Dark Rhythms, a club music cocktail formed by four original tracks and two remixes, serving as a bridge between his home country’s black folklore and the newest electronic music.
Kicking off the EP, “Caly” borrows patterns from the southern Venezuelan variant of calypso and crossbreeds them with echoes of Afro-house and grime, creating a contagious, syncopated beat. A mysterious aura surrounds “Elemento,” clearly referencing South African Gqom and British bass music, and its rumbling low end shakes the ground. “Ritmo Oscuro” is also built on a Gqom foundation, but its use of coastal Afro-Venezuelan drums and nods to Changa Tuky are trance-inducing.
Although it sounds dark and unsettling at first, “Puya” dazzles at the center of the EP with its melodic lines, providing the most dynamic moment on Dark Rhythms thanks to Hernández’s expert manipulation of rhythms from his country’s Caribbean coast.
Dark Rhythms is completed with two remixes done by two international club music scene protagonists. Tomás Urquieta, from the Infinite Machine imprint, shreds “Caly” to pieces with his industrial machinery, turning the track into a body punishment with metallic and distorted textures and a punching beat. On the other hand, Night Slugs co-founder Bok Bok infecting “Elemento” with mutant synths which squirm on top of the rhythm he embellished himself, closing the EP with a euphoric discharge.
With Dark Rhythms, besides debuting his own HDDN label, Hidden Memory presents himself to his audience with a unique and defined personality, injecting worldwide dance floors with the vitality of Afro-Venezuelan rhythms, largely unexplored on electronic dance music, and with his hunger for genre hybridization to generate exciting music.
credits
released October 25, 2018
Written, Produced & Mixed by Emmerson Hernández @ Catara Estudios, Santiago de Chile.
Afro-Venezuelan Drums on tracks "Ritmo Oscuro" and "Puya" by Norman Miranda.
Mastering: Mastered by Sam @ Precise Mastering, London, UK.
Art direction: José Luis Hernández.
Thanks for the love and support to Andrea Chehade, Luis Espinoza (Catara Estudios), José Luis Hernández, Norman Miranda, Tomás Urquieta, Alex Sushon (Bok Bok), David Riopelle.
After living in Caracas, Barcelona, and more recently Santiago de Chile,
Venezuelan electronic music artist
Emmerson Hernández relocated to the
Netherlands just in time to unleash Hidden Memory, a new musical adventure through which he goes deep into his own roots to enhance his futuristic vision....more
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