BALÚN
BUY OR STREAM
Bio
Brooklyn-based electronic indie band Balún self-identify as transnational. The quartet that broke out of the San Juan indie scene a decade ago has since undergone a formational odyssey through the industry, academia, and the stateside Puerto Rican experience. Balún’s long-awaited sophomore album Prisma Tropical focuses an incredibly wide field of genres and influences into a revelatory sound that evokes both of the band’s homes and the distance between them. Heavy doses of tiple, bomba barrel drum, and dembow work alongside loops and layers of shimmering synths to accomplish something explicitly of the island, yet fluent in the language of global pop. Tied together around the magical realism of singer Angélica Negrón’s lyrics, Balún’s deep understanding of reggaeton's Jamaican dancehall roots has transformed their shoegaze pop into “dreambow.” Balún's new single El Espanto premiered on NPR’s Songs We Love and is the latest preview of Prisma Tropical, which is one of Noisey's Most Anticipated Hispano-American Albums of 2018. La Nueva Ciudad, their previous single and one of Remezcla's 10 Best Songs of 2016, was Spotify Latino's Song of the Day and broke into the Viral Charts globally and in 8 countries including Spain, Mexico, Chile, & Argentina.