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Music

Argentine Producer Moro Brings His Menagerie of Sounds to NON Records

5-track EP San Benito is out today

NON Records—the self-described "African diaspora collective" run by producers Chino Amobi, Angel-HO, and Nkisi—is welcoming Argentina producer Moro into its crew.

San Benito is Moro's debut for the stateless record label. It's a remarkably different listening experience than the average electronic music effort—the first few seconds sound as though you've turned on some massive warfare video game. Sounds appear like collected items, feral dog's bark and passing pedestrian voices call out then fade like a dream. Drums are mixed to sound like the low-end wallop of a distant cannon. If it weren't for the fact Moro was corralling his sounds into raw beat, you'd think he'd lost control of his sample library.

Moro is, in fact, in total control, shaking loose "traditional genres" like tango, by smothering them in the virtual reality of forgotten history. "Tango was born from Candombe, Milonga, Rumba (All afrosouthamerican rhythms), "he writes on the Bandcamp page for San Benito, "of course the African part is completely erased/hidden and the development of the genre went on the European side, therefore less rhythm and more romantic/harmonic type. I feel one of my duties is to go back to the African part of tango, to reclaim the rhythm and to make it important and visible again."

The 5-tracks that make up the San Benito EP are more than just injections of rhythms. They come together like a giant melting pot of ingredients so pinched into the production stew, that Moro seems to have invented his own genre rather than reclaimed one. "As part of this duty," Moro says in his Bandcamp statement, "I'm making this genre I decided to call Ramba (Which is the mixture of Argentinian/Uruguayan/Cuban) and all the rhythms that share the same DNA and most important CLAVE, or as we call it, Madera."

San Benito is out today on NON Records. Listen to it below.