A heart monitor is one of the hardest samples to use. It references life and death, but is also just a silly little bleep, so it has the potential to dramatically alter perception of a track. Though I also might just feel this because the sound immediately transports me back to playing Healing Vision (Angelic Mix) on DDR. But Chilean producer Tomás Urquieta harnesses the heart monitor and slowly overtakes it with some really satisfying repetitions until it’s just a tiny bright star in the back. “Memoria” lives in that sweet space of being just polished enough where it doesn’t sound messy, but messy and crunchy enough so that it feels human, driving forward with the energy of techno while still maintaining the minimality of grime. It’s interesting to hear the differences between club-grime in the UK and club-grime in Chile. While in many ways Urquieta’s production sounds very similar to that of a producer like Sudanim, it’s clear that they have been brought up in vastly different spaces.
• Tomás Urquieta: https://soundcloud.com/tomasurquieta
• Diamante Records: https://soundcloud.com/diamantelabel