I’m not a doctor or a therapist, but I’ll risk a claim: if you say you’re having a bad day while still lying in bed at 4 p.m., having spent the whole day so far glued to your phone, you really shouldn’t be surprised. Nothing comes from nothing. Get up. Get out.
In that spirit, Helado Negro faces the end of the world head-on on his fatalistically titled EP The Last Sound On Earth. Its themes include the constant sensory overload of modern life and a widespread indifference toward the vulnerable – yet his response is not withdrawal, but movement. He wants to dance, to stay in motion. That impulse is rooted in the Caribbean music of his childhood, but on The Last Sound On Earth it takes on a distinctly electronic form. IDM novices (like myself) may feel reminded of Boards of Canada or the more accessible tracks by Aphex Twin. Like those touchstones, Helado Negro makes music that flows – music that doesn’t feel manufactured so much as organic, almost as if shaped by nature itself.
Accordingly, the grooves on The Last Sound On Earth are relaxed but forward-looking – restrained, perhaps, yet never shy. There is simply too much sunshine, lightness and spiritual coolness at work here. Over bubbling synths and fragmented beats, Helado Negro sings while constantly switching between English and Spanish, eventually arriving at the most important words on the EP: »Let’s Go!«
One thing is certain: if Helado Negro hears the last sound at the end of the world, he’ll be moving when it happens.
