Barcelona’s a lush hotbed for a psychedelic dance-pop scene that’s not only birthed acts like El Guincho and Delorean but it’s also stretching the boundaries of house music with dreamy elastic works by Pional and John Talabot.
Talabot has just released his proper debut record (cheekily titled) “fin” and it’s a stunner. Talabot smartly doesn’t rework his formula and keeps the aspects that made his early singles “Sunshine” and “Matilda’s Dream” such bangers. Rooting his tracks in chant-y vocal loops, thick tribal percussion, and organic sounds, you half get the feeling these are dreamed up not on instruments but via cave paintings and daylong walkabouts across endless desert plains.
Although it’s a dance music record, it at times feels like an aural version of Koyaanisqatsi. It marries the mechanic clicks and shuffles of dance music with living, breathing, (at times even screaming) vocal sounds. “fin” is one of those special albums that works in the club or on headphones, day or night, city streets or desert roads, an excellent expression of human being.
Destiny feat. Pional by John Talabot
— Mario Cotto