None of these tracks from Santiago Salazar are new – they all appeared on the Historia y Violencia label from 2008 to 2012. If anything, the passage of time and the accumulation of cruddy techno gunk in our crap filters has amplified these sterling productions even more. There’s a strange phenomenon that Stacey Pullen described in an interview with me once: a DJ sits in a room hunched over a laptop (I can’t think of any posture and environment LESS like DJing than this) and listens to scores of bad music until they happen across a record that scratches the surface of the mediocre. And it sounds good: the silver ray stabbing through an shapeless, featureless, overcast skyline. I can’t even tell you how many times this has happened.
But these tracks move, motivate, terrify, invigorate, inspire. “Santuario” (originally released in 2008) builds like a holy rapture, the energy and emotions of a whole DJ set compacted into 8 minutes 9 seconds of time. Santiago Salazar has this style of making muted, almost quiet records that underscore a furious intensity. “Retiro” (originally released in 2011) is a beautiful example of this. It’s packed with a restrained energy, like a tectonic fault locked and growing in tension until it reaches a critical release and blows the fucking place apart.
Santiago Salazar: La Historia (The Collection)
1. Santiago Salazar: Santuario (08:08)
2. Santiago Salazar: La Minoria (08:14)
3. Santiago Salazar: Corazon (07:32)
4. Santiago Salazar: Retiro (06:49)
5. Santiago Salazar: Caja de Luz (06:26)
IN THE GROOVE: Originally published inside #5Mag165 featuring Danny J Lewis, Aakmael, Roman Zawodny & UKR, Nate Manic & more. Help support 5 Mag by becoming a member for just $1 per issue.
