Over the course of a decade, Chicago’s Divino Niño have made a steady ascent from soft psychedelic rock music into out-there hypnagogia increasingly dependent on conventions borrowed from Latin house and reggaeton, culminating in 2022’s bedroom R&B opus Last Spa on Earth. While the band’s Instagram page currently assures us that they’re recording new material, today sees the release of lead vocalist Camilo Medina’s debut solo EP under the moniker S.3.R—an outlet that amps up the experimentation despite N?C’s five tracks barely clocking in at 10 minutes.
As its title suggests, N?C chronicles the initial confusion of Medina’s time living in NYC since moving there from Chicago last year. Referencing his band’s intriguing balance of alt-rock subgenres, Latin sounds, and industrial dance music, the EP could easily be summed up by the panic and ecstasy of the track “Abismo del Horror.” “On the surface, the song might sound like a form of escapism—a typical night out at the club, doing drugs to forget your problems or the world’s,” Medina shares. “But the title comes from a sample at the end of the track, taken from an interview with Colombian artist Doris Salcedo, where she says: ‘To search for that answer, we must peer into the abyss of horror, but in a subtle way, in a poetic way.’”
Arriving with a visualizer that emphasizes the single’s psychedelic, danceable qualities, he continues, noting that his move to NYC has helped him better identify with the Colombian visual artist’s work and its themes of “violence, loss, memory, and mourning—especially within the political and social history of Colombia. These are things I’ve lived through, yet I’ve often avoided confronting them. Subconsciously, I think I came to NYC chasing a more glamorous, Warhol-style version of art and identity. But I’m learning that growth comes from facing the very things I’ve tried to escape. This song is my attempt to build a bridge between those two worlds.”
The full EP is out today, and you can check that out here. Find the visualizer for “Abismo del Horror” below.
