by Patrick Pilch (@pratprilch)
Music journalism feels dead but Pedazo De Carne Con Ojo makes me want to do at least something to help keep it alive. The second collection of tracks from Steven Perez is like a firecracker in an iridescent paint bucket, impossible to ignore. Short review: this tape is ridiculously good and you should snag one from Citrus City before they disappear.
The multi-city label’s hundredth release feels particularly important. They put it simply: ¿Pero Like Cómo E’tá? is a “very special album… packed with heat y flavor”. The sub-30 excursion is colorful and bustling and it truly speaks for itself. Fusing hip-hop and salsa with elements of pop and bachata, Pero is teeming with Pedazo De Carne’s originality and uninhibited creativity. The artist keeps the music of his youth in mind, combining traditional Dominican styles with the contemporary sensibilities of footwork, rap and R&B. It’s spilling with rich melodic pockets, busy with percussive flares and samples that might make for a chaotic first listen, but as someone once said about tapes as short as Pero, you could always just play it again.
Perez wields a Roland SP-404 to shift seamlessly through calculated compositions that, for all their measured complications and looping experiments, contain striking pop moments which materialize with increasing immediacy over the course of the tape. “I Need the Bag” and “Handle Your Business” are prime examples of these instant hooks - two heavy-hitters filled with bright and beautiful rhythmic stutters which morph fluidly into bass-heavy pop perfection.
Pedazo De Carne’s latest will make you not want to listen to anything else. Sometimes reviews take a long time, but this one was effortless. Hearing a record like this is exciting as fuck. So yeah, maybe music journalism is dead, but with albums like ¿Pero Like Cómo E’tá?, it’ll be difficult to keep the pens at rest.