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Music

Mark Redito Reintroduces Himself with the Dancehall-Influenced "You'll Only Love Me When I'm Gone"

Hear the bouncy first single from the Los Angeles DJ and producer's forthcoming record.
Photo by Priscilla Mastrodomencio

Los Angeles DJ and producer Mark Redito has been laying low since dropping his Spazzkid moniker, working on his next full-length record, and launching Likido, a community event series that spotlights creatives from marginalized and queer backgrounds.

Today THUMP premieres "You'll Only Love Me When I'm Gone," the first single under his own name, off his forthcoming album due out next year. Melodic vocal samples are chopped and screwed, gleaming atop of warped harp sounds, bombastic grooves, and elements of dancehall on the bouncy anthem. The island-nodding production is inspired by Redito's love of the percussion found in African, Caribbean, and South American music like dembow and moombahton.

"Most of these sub-genres have a focus on percussions and drums —which resonates with me as I am a drummer myself," he told THUMP via email. "I wanted to feature the same sort of 'pulse' from these genres and also incorporate my pop and melodic sensibility. While the song has a 'celebratory' kind of feel, the personal theme I worked with is of 'loss' (can be a romantic break up or a friendship fallout). It's a challenging theme to engage with, but I think that we should acknowledge 'loss' and how it can potentially shape us for the better."

Listen to the track below, buy it here, and get tickets to Lidiko's Sept. 8 show in NYC.

Mark Redito is on Facebook // Twitter // SoundCloud

Max Mohenu is on Twitter.