- Florentino's new EP for XL Recordings represents all facets of his Latin-influenced club music.
- To chalk Florentino's brilliance up to his British-Colombian heritage would be too simple. Aside from his keen sense of rhythm and melody, collaborations are also his forte—he knows how to find vocalists that strike that difficult balance between sultry, innovative and a little melancholy. Since 2015's Tu Y Yo, every Florentino release has doubled as a hit list of the most relevant contributors to Latin club music and beyond. His production credits also serve as a stamp of approval for breaking through artists of the time—think his work with Isabella Lovestory, Bad Gyal or MC Bin Laden in the late '10s. On Florentino's latest release, he brings together a batch of collaborators that represent the directions in which the hottest global club music is moving right now.
Florentino writes that Kilómetro Quinze is titled after an "almost nameless road" near his grandfather's farm in Colombia. In short, the EP is about embracing the liminal nature of his music, which has always been situated at the nexus of Latin club, dancehall and the shimmering synths of UK grime and funky. On tracks like "Constrictor," where tongue clicks pan from one ear to the next, he speaks directly to these influences. Toronto's Bambii sprinkles her Jamaican patois like powdered sugar and later, the boyish flow of Dominican rapper KD One lets loose over her light exhales and coquettish giggles. This fusion of aesthetics also shine in the record's most detailed track, "Con Luz," where breaks skitter underneath stretched out Spanish vocals and a teasing muted cumbia beat eventually arrives clear as glass by the track's latter half.
When Florentino ramps up the energy on this EP, his vocalists are venomous. On "Pressure," Shygirl's icy vocals are a barely-there film over raging reggaeton drums and wobbling bass. On "Hysterika," Venezuelan vocalist Baby Cocada guides listeners through the track's build-up, and all the lights go out when she ejects the song title from her mouth like a sour candy. The drop is ecstatic—percussion heaves, a bassline slithers, sirens stutter and it sounds like a party you'd want to be invited to.
Tracklist01. Constrictor feat. BAMBII & KD One
02. Sicara feat. DJ Python
03. Hysterika feat. Baby Cocada
04. Pressure feat. Shygirl
05. Con Luz