Days before we were approached by Bairoa (born Luis Valentin from Borinken) to premiere "Sumersión", I wanted to bring you his demo edit for "Sixteen Candles", a lo-fi R&B gem that sounds like Helado Negro x Dënver's cinematic wonder piece "Medio Mal", complete with affective strings and those haunting synths. We were captivated by the cool pastel motifs running through Bairoa's cover art, his flair for gold chains & rings, and that really sexy bigote. This brown boy with perceiving brown eyes came with flowers- we couldn't say no.
With "Sumersión" Bairoa joins Buscabulla at her trippiest- part of a nascent island scene that could be perceived as a psychedelic revival in Puerto Rican pop music. Tropicália comes to mind in textures and atmospheres but not in politics- at least not yet. "Sumersión" begins with distortion & guitars à la Maggot Brain before the heartbeats of Afro-Caribbean drums begin their cyclical & meditative loop. Bairoa's dreamy vocals at times rupture, becoming those same guitars & far out electronic distortion. Bairoa sounds like he is attempting to convey the mysteries of the cosmos, so many porous vignettes of 1970s psychedelia come to mind.
Bairoa's debut EP is slated for an early 2016 release. This debut single was produced by Bairoa himself along with Luis Alfredo Del Valle (of the mystifying Buscabulla).