“I don’t understand anything, thank you very much”he tweeted Dillom at 0.25 this Friday, April 26. Just 25 minutes after the premiere of By Caesarean sectionhis highly anticipated second studio album, the statistics of his artist account on Spotify indicated that the work already had more than two million views “since the beginning for this release”. An instant classic in an era full of ephemeral ticks that had countless positive comments, memes and good feelings galore on social media throughout today.
But what of Dylan Leon Masa -such is its real name- is once again conceptual. Just like in his notable debut Post Mortem (2021) – a kind of posthumous album in life, caused by the anxiety generated by the author dying before his work sees the light -, had the concept before the songs. “First we write the script and then we begin to develop the themes little by little“Dillom confided to Teleshow in an informal conversation that occurred weeks before the launch, in a private listening held at the Panda Studios, the place where all the drums for this new album were recorded, which, without fear of exaggeration, is one of the best Argentine musical works. births in this 21st century.
Thus, the music had a film treatment and the premise was to tell a story from beginning to end, with songs playing continuously, with audio and atmosphere as the common thread. In fact, reinforcing this idea, The album did not have any advance single., something very common in the industry, but it was thrown on the grill all at once. A smart decision for your independent label and home Bohemian Groove.
The zero minute of the album appeared in the midst of the whirlwind of Post Mortem Tour, a tour with which he toured a good part of the continent and several cities in Spain. In Barcelona, and together with its producers Fermin Ugarte and Luis Tomas La Madridthey returned to the studio with the idea of starting to work on the successor album, but the songs “Ola de suicidas” and the four that make up the ep appeared. Ad Honorem Vol. 1. There you begin to notice a more rotten audio, less eclectic, more focused on the percussive (unavoidable influence of Kanye West, one of the artist’s references) and with a more analog grain, provoking new textures. It was an interesting transition to what is known today as By Caesarean section (“I was born that way, they gave birth to me that way”reveals Dillom), which took shape after a series of retreats that the team did on the Delta islands, based at the Delta Sound Lodge studio, during 2023.
The province of Córdoba was also a good refuge to finish defining the issue: specifically, the Sonoramica study, property of the Chinese Bandalos and located in Mina Clavero, a place known to Dillom, since part of Post Mortem. In that last retreat the songs and the guests were defined: nothing more and nothing less than Andres Calamaro and Lali Esposito. He also participates in music Alejandro Teran and the Divergent Quartet, who recorded luxurious arrangements and orchestral interventions in six of the twelve songs on the album. It also intervenes Broke Carreyof his family Rip Gangon the song “White Lies.”
When everything was ready, the last decision was to give a human touch to the songs, using as few takes as possible, with live recordings of the bases and using vintage equipment. While Dillom took over almost all the voices, Fermín recorded bass, guitars, synthesizers and programming; La Madrid added more programming; Ignacio Haye was in charge of drums and percussion; Giuiliano De Tomatis on guitars; Franco Dolzani, guitars, pianos and synthesizers; and Ivan Cetkovich It was with more pianos and synthesizers. The mixing by Santiago De Simone It highlights all these details and puts the climate just right to round out an immersive experience.
A wayward exponent of the Argentine trap wave that shook the local mainstream between 2017 and 2019, Dillom is beyond that big bang and is the owner of unclassifiable audio. Is it hip-hop, is it rock, is it punk, is it trip-hop, is it pop? It definitely doesn’t fit into any tray, like the warped vinyl from Artaud (Rabid fish), which is somehow referred to on the dark cover of this By Caesarean section.
If the previous album was motivated by the possibility of an early death that would prevent him from showing all its contents; In this new one, Dillom tells us how he got here, from the moment he took the first whiff of it until these days. His life and his work like a raw rock opera, there the Roger Waters of The Wall or the Charlie of The daughter of tears. And it swings between fiction and self-reference to expose traumatic scenes from childhood (in the dramatic “Lately,” which narrates a mother’s suicide attempt), twisted love songs (“My Friend’s Girlfriend,” “Surgery.” ), convert the mood friendly with the one that begins “Muñecas” – with a quote to “Hello” from Miranda!– in a horror movie that leads to femicide. Or the descent into hell with no prospect of ever seeing the light again with the eloquent “Good Times,” carrying a frenetic rhythm throughout. trainspotting and the phrase “The day I die I will die in my law”, which lends itself to a play on words with the surname of the Argentine president. “The truth is that we didn’t think about it in that sense, but when we recorded it we realized that it could be taken from that side and that it could make noise.”Dillom laughs.
The contribution of the guests is key because it is clear that they are not forced collaborations to pamper the algorithm, but that the artists surrendered to the Dillom universe under their own rules. “Life is a pij… and it is picking me up,” the artist laments in “My Worst Enemy,” where a figure appears from beyond the grave. Squid deep cambodia -its stage immediately after tour de force which was his famous quintuple album The salmon– to remind you that “life goes by fast, fast.” AND Laliin a register unknown until today, appropriates a stanza from “Plegaria desvelada” (Maria Elena Walsh) and puts himself in the skin of a prostitute to guide the flow spatial and percussive (Kanye doing his thing again) of “La carie”. “I promised my dad that I was going to be the best, but I don’t want to be the best anymore, I want to be the worst“, he says in this song, wanting to escape his destiny.
“Yesterday Dillom presented his album (in which I am lucky to participate in a piece) and it is perhaps one of the best albums I have heard in recent times… In a looong time! It is a raw and deep story! Friend, I admire you. Hold on,” the pop diva dedicated to him on Twitter. On that same thread, Calamaro added: “Come on. What a joy to participate together in this work.”.
After the collaborations, the album seems to split in two lyrically. If the first part has more narratively developed lyrics, the second is pure punchline, something that characterizes Dillom’s style. “The idea at first was that, to write a little more, to make the stories have more body. But then I couldn’t contain myself and I fell into mine”, summarizes the rapper about his style.
Thus, and after an instrumental interlude uptempo (“Irreveresible”), in “Coyote”, where he transmuted his ramonero fanaticism into a rabid and poguero hardcore, Dillom concedes: “Everyone already knows my secrets / I closed the door with four keys / I am prepared in case they come to kill me / I am a fool like I never knew before.” For “Reiki and Yoga” he stages the possibility of suicide as a liberator from all his evils (“I’m going to do what I think I am / And end this pain / I’ve made a decision, it’s today”). And in the heavenly “City of Peace,” which he features a guitar solo by Iñaki Colombo by Bandalos Chinos, is reborn from that sensation to propel himself in a kind of hope. “For now it doesn’t hurt me anymore / I’m just another light in the city / So much so that I try to lose track of space and time / Only then will they miss me / The darkness is no longer scary / If I had another chance…”, he intones and says goodbye until the next chapter. The album, meanwhile, asks for a repeat.
