¡BAS! Enters the Electronic Dance Ranking with Layers of ¡BAS!
5 min read
¡BAS! Enters the Electronic Dance Ranking with Layers of ¡BAS!
A Miami Producer’s 2022 Album of Funk, House and Psychedelic Guitar Finds Its Listeners Again
Layers of ¡BAS! came out on 28 February 2022: twelve tracks and about 50 minutes from ¡BAS!, a self-taught producer, DJ, musician and engineer from Miami with a Cuban background. It opens with Own Time, and its ninth track, Navigate, features jonny sé. The record mixes house, funk, psychedelic guitar and lofi textures.
¡BAS! opens Layers of ¡BAS! with Own Time, the song now in the playlist below, and the ¡BAS! profile brings together everything our titles have written about the producer. The album reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play on that opener, then keep reading for who the album was made for.
Layers of ¡BAS! Was Built for Listeners Who Want to Dance, Feel and Reminisce on One Record
The album’s purpose is written into its title. ¡BAS! has described it as an attempt to speak to every side of a personality. In other words, there is something for listeners who want to feel, to dance or to look back. First, Own Time opens it and sets the terms: the producer works best with nothing else to do, and refuses to be put in a box.
Those listeners are easy to picture, because the project’s own favourite records point straight at them. The list starts with Mordechai by Khruangbin, the trio’s third album, released on 26 June 2020. Then it goes on to 99.9% by Kaytranada, a debut that won the 2016 Polaris Music Prize, and French Kiwi Juice by FKJ, the French multi-instrumentalist’s 2017 debut. Of the three, however, FKJ is the closest model. He builds his live sets from loops, much as ¡BAS! builds each song from one instrument outwards. As a result, anyone who keeps those three records close will find the same meeting of groove, guitar and electronics here.
Basilio Garcia’s Words and Music, Built One Instrument at a Time
Spotify credits Basilio Garcia with the words and music of Own Time. ¡BAS! has also explained that every song on the record starts from a different instrument, which then shapes the rest of the track. Meanwhile, the running order moves from My House and Soul through Space and Bring the Funk to Nightride DUB and Funk-U-Later.
Similarly, the Spotify biography sets out the same range. It describes feel-good music drawing on house, funk, dubstep, EDM, rock, soul and hip hop, made with the freedom to create whatever feels and sounds good. Own Time puts that freedom into its first line, a call the narrator does not want to take: Why you calling me right now, you know I’m really busy?
Early Press in Brazil and France Met Layers of ¡BAS!, and a Close Friend Joined on Navigate
The early response came quickly and from several countries. In 2022 the album drew coverage from more than ten music sites, from Brazil and France to English-language blogs. In Brazil, INDIEOCLOCK noted that it was the first album by ¡BAS!, and in France, IGGY MAGAZINE heard an eclectic electronic ambience in it.
At the same time, the community around the record is small and close. jonny sé, a close friend of the producer, features on Navigate and also makes the project’s visuals. ¡BAS! has said that collaboration has to be built on trust, respect and friendship. In fact, guests get full creative control over what they add.
Behind that small circle sits a clear view of the business. ¡BAS! has said that breaking into the scene and finding steady gigs is hard. As ¡BAS! sees it, chances often go to status or connections rather than to what an artist brings. A self-released album with a dozen press write-ups is one answer to that.
What the Spotify Numbers Show About Layers of ¡BAS!
The listening numbers on Spotify show where people start. There, My House is the most played track by ¡BAS!, with 5,148 plays, ahead of a remix of The Mango Song made with Afrobeta. Own Time was first released as a single in 2021, before it opened the album.
More is on the way: ¡BAS! has new music and live shows planned for 2026 and 2027.
On BestMusic.News, Own Time now sits in our Electronic, Dance and EDM playlist. It suits listeners of lofi guitar music, psychedelic rock, bass music and four-on-the-floor house who like to hear them on the same record.
From the BestMusic.News curator team: “Layers of ¡BAS! was made as an album in a singles era, twelve tracks meant to be heard without skipping, and Own Time is the right way in. That is why it went into our electronic playlist.”
Stream the album on SoundCloud, then follow ¡BAS! across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube channel and Facebook.
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