Words By: Bre Offenberger

Los Esplifs, an art-psych duo, have released “Galaxia,” a single housed on their newly announced debut album, ESTRAIK BACK, due out April 20. The track’s vibrant texture as well as feel-good sonic elements are both inexplicably tangible.

The track starts with a few steady but anxious taps of the drums before converting to an organ-driven track that’s bursting at the seams with vigor and a vitality most have been lacking in the past year. Saul Millan enters with a fun-loving energy that’s only amplified by the twists and turns of the organ, which contains the best riff of its kind in recent memory. It reaches an instrumental break where all (good) hell breaks loose, with drums cascading up and down the walls as sticky guitar licks and a bass that turns the room into pure infectious electricity. Millan makes his return, this time with an even heavier robustness that shines over the accompanying effervescence of the music. The track fades out with hums while the keys continue to go berserk, and even though it’s been a nearly four-minute journey, all you’re left thinking is how much you want more.

Of the single, Millan shares: “I wrote ‘Galaxia’ thinking about my own manic obsession with curiosity. It is a narrative story of a reflective hallucination. The main point is that we can get too heady with trying to understand our understandings and the inner workings of our interactions. I was listening to a lot of El Gran Combo and Ecuadorian Organist Eduardo Zurita and wanted to write a song with an organ moment. ‘Galaxia’ ends with a coro that soars with ‘no entendre’ meaning ‘I won’t understand’. The chorus reinforces the idea of the song while encouraging you to take it easy and dance your ass off.“

“Galaxia” is the follow-up to “Otro Pais,” which will also appear on the 11-track ESTRAIK BACK. The Tucson natives channel their hometown vibes and combine that with a glance into what it’s like to live as a Latinx individual in modern times. This album, however, is not the band’s first venture and certainly will not be their last. Since 2014, Millan has performed with The Mexican Institute of Sound, Calexico and Orkesta Mendoza. Bandmate Caleb Michel has been a part of Afro Cuban Allstars since age 19. In 2018, the two decided to combine their individual talents into what we know today as the ultra-energetic and compelling project that is Los Esplifs. While you count down the minutes until ESTRAIK BACK is released on April 20, stream the daylights out of “Galaxia.”

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Feature Image By: Valence Heartlock