Entropy is a measure of randomness or disorder within a system – a property shaped by the components that make up that system. A Tropical Entropy, the new LP by Nick León, released on TraTraTrax, is a prime example of such a system and its constituent parts. The system in question is tropical – as in the climate zone – and its entropy begs to be mapped.
The Miami-based producer and DJ has roots in hip-hop, but in recent years, Nick León has emerged as a major voice in the electronic pop and dance avant-garde. A Tropical Entropy melts together components like electronica, punk, ambient, breakbeat, jungle, and dembow-infused house into a hyperrealistic dance-pop system – its surface further exaggerated by autotuned guest vocals from artists such as Ela Minus and Erika de Casier.
A Tropical Entropy is a high-end zeitgeist artefact from the US–Latin American branch of IDM – Intelligent Dance Music – whose origins lie in 1990s Britain. In bringing this lineage into the present, León nods to the work of DJ Python, Bad Bunny and DJRum, or to the timeless aggression of the Tekken era. The result is mystical, forceful, unsettling. Its ultra-smooth, plasticised surface feels strangely elusive – almost too slick to grasp. And that sense of overwhelm is precisely where León wants us to be.
A Tropical Entropy
