EL HIJO DEL MAIZ

Hot off the heels of Aluxes, his 2018 Lumiere Noire debut EP (LN 008EP), young Mexican DJ/producer Inigo Vontier is inviting Chloe's label on a trip to the far corners of the body and mind with an album of demented grooves, psychedelic take-offs, and imaginary comic strips of mystical rituals. A bewitching debut full-length. The DJ/producer fully asserts his origins by brandishing the album's title El Hijo Del Maiz (the son of the corn) almost as an emblem: in Mexico, corn is eaten daily. It has long been defined as 'the gold of America', and I consider all Mexicans as children of corn. Whether contemplative or frenetic, the collection of tracks that make up El Hijo Del Maiz takes the kitchen sink and throws it out the window: languid rhythms, haunted vocals, and mysterious percussion fuel a discombobulated house set that scrambles the listener's five senses. Following the demented, dystopian Xu Xu, which explores an imaginary jungle that harbored Mayan and Egyptian pyramids, Middle Eastern accents are once more present in the off-kilter Bo Ni Ke and its Japanese-influenced vocal trickery, which Moroccan flutes a la Jajouka transform into a feverish trance. With the following three tracks, Inigo Vontier raises himself to the same level of excellence as the Pachanga duo (of which pride of the Mexican scene Rebolledo): the slumbering voice of Awaken, heard as through the veil of hypnosis, slowly introduces a techno beat which literally brings the listener to a levitative state. In a house-ier vein, yet continuing in the same psychedelic, '90s-infused spirit, Don't Go Back disrupts the genre's usual signatures with an out-of-tune keyboard that is becoming the artist's trademark, destabilizing the listener into a drunken vertigo, with a good helping of sexiness. The ode to the magical herb Marijuana (featuring Thomass Jackson) proudly tramples into the debate that such a provocative title inevitably provokes. In the end, El Hijo Del Maiz is an album-length confirmation of Inigo Vontier's uniqueness, and his adherence to Lumiere Noire's policy of letting artists fully express their vision -- while letting their passions guide their idiosyncrasies and explorations of innovative electronic signatures. Also features Drugface and Beyou. ?A1. Xu Xu (feat. Xen) (5:36)?A2. Bo Ni Ke (5:29)?A3. Awaken (feat. Drugface) (6:42)?B1. Don't Go Back (7:07)?B2. Marijuana (feat. Thomass Jackson) (7:01)?B3. Brujos (feat. Beyou) (5:39)?B4. I Never Try (4:02)