damelove is MC Rey Vega aka Reypharaoh and producer Amos Joan aka Amos a la Playa. Rey, a son of Jamaican-Costa Rican / Peruvian immigrants and Amos, who inherited his musical talent from his Cameroonian father, a troubadour and street musician, both live and work in Switzerland. This country has so far not been known to be a hotbed of the sound damelove is concerned with. In these parts, the dembow riddim of reggaeton might lead to some awkward dance moves here and there, but so far it has not produced notable acts truly dedicated to the style.

This might be about to change, though, as damelove releases their dazzling debut EP through Präsens Editionen this week [full disclosure: Präsens Editionen is our publisher too]. Amos and Rey call their sound “sad-boy reggaeton” and instead of a jubilant celebration of physical passion, it offers a more reserved and distanced take on bodily intimacy. Aguafina charts a search for the possibility of the coming together of bodies. It is music for a time in which it remains uncertain when and where its listeners will be allowed to dance to it. With this take on reggaeton, damelove belong to a generation of musicians that introduce new textures and sounds into one of the most successful and trend-sensitive genres of our time.

Kelman Duran, another member of this emerging generation, contributes a remix of “Dime?” to the release. With two critically acclaimed albums of what could be called after-hour reggaeton, Duran has proven how much potential the Latin-American genre with a transatlantic reach offers for differentiated voices. “At this point, there are so many of us that the genre is so vast,” Durant said in an interview with zweikommasieben recently [see issue #20], “and all these people have their own vocabulary. And that’s something I really wanted for reggaeton.”

damelove continue this exploration and exhibit an intuitive and sensitive understanding of the style, as well as the courage to push the tension between closeness and distance within the gaps of the dembow riddim.

We are excited to premiere Duran’s remix of “Dime?” ahead of the EP’s release tomorrow.

damelove’s Aguafina will be out as a digital EP via Präsens Editionen on June 26. Pre-order the release here.