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The Puerto Rican group Calle 13 are one of modern Latin music’s most-treasured institutions: Over the course of five scrappy, propulsive albums, they were aesthetically omnivorous, politically bracing and even commercially successful, earning a platinum plaque and a smattering of minor hits. Their peers adored them, and no group has won more awards from the Latin Recording Academy.
Calle 13 went on hiatus following the release of 2014’sMulti_Viral, and its members have gradually worked to establish solo identities. The singer iLe struck first, with a handsome, nostalgic full-length titled iLevitable. The rapper Residente followed with an eponymous album built around a jet-setting concept: collaborators and recording locations doubled as an exploration of his own heritage. And now comes Trending Tropics, a new release from Calle 13’s beats-whiz Visitante in collaboration with the Dominican singer Vicente Garcia.
This is a wonderfully madcap album with impeccable sequencing. It opens with a beautiful choral passage — the choir includes Nidia Góngora, who recorded an album with the producer Quantic last year that’s worth your streams — before giving way to electronic gurgles. Then comes one of the year’s great barn-burners, “El Futuro Ya Pasó,” which is helmed by iLe. This is all rambunctious, bounding energy, with jagged, clanging guitars lifted from African pop and a ferocious call-and-response hook. After that, the album slows to make room for cooled-out rapping from Ana Tijoux on “Silicone Love,” only to accelerate to reckless speed on “Elintelné.”
This kind of zig-zagging is the primary organizational principle — dis-organizational principle? — onTrending Tropics. Vocalists cycle in and out — Tijoux, rapping with flinty grace; Wiso G, exclaiming furiously; Garcia himself, selling “The Farm” with a heady hook. Visitante and Garcia are remarkably uninterested in repeating themselves, so the backdrops change as often as the singers: A snatch of salsa transforms into a half-time hip-hop beat; a club-ready thump joins racing surf-rock; a synth hints at electrocumbia while a guitar riffs on ska. To keep everything tight, Trending Tropics also work with an overarching concept: 21st century humans might be overly dependent on technology. You can read more about that in the news, but you won’t have half as much fun.
