When considering forward thinking bass music in Texas, it’s hard to look beyond the influence

of Sines and his Freshmore imprint, a veritable Houston institution that has been pushing

diasporic bass sounds for the better part of the last four years. Recently, veteran producer

Sines has joined up with fellow producer Panchitron, the Los Angeles-born producer who

now resides in Austin, to form Santa Muerte. Focused on the intersectionality of contemporary

dance music sub-culture, the duo has turned their focus on every- thing from instrumental

grime abstractions to the wonderfully tinny direction that reggaeton has taken in the past

decade. The name puts a focus on death, more specifically an understanding of how death

is understood by the living, and the Santa Muerte sound is undeniably dark, a sweltering trip

through choral VSTs, ballroom abrasions and the memorable crunch of the dembow loop.

Santa Muerte is a project firmly focused on the dancefloor and while the attitude might be

focused more on sonic muck, their originals, edits and mixes do tend to be wildly effective in

the hip shaking department.