It’s not a DJ. It’s not a dog. It’s the five-piece from Puebla, Mexico, that has had a rather fair share of ass-kicking since 2015. After just three seconds of listening to them, you know DJ Perro are as fierce and wild as their name implies.
After releasing their debut LP Canis Allegro back in 2018, the perros climbed to the top of the Mexican rock scene’s crème de la créme. Their music is deliciously cohesive, replete with neat guitar riffs (three of them, may I add), a strong and steady bass line and drilling drums. I’m inclined to include them in the major league of math rock (and its derivatives), amongst bands like CHON (even Bit Brigade if intricate, clean riffs are your thing). The Mexican quintet have experimented with other genres and time signatures in their evolution as a band, enriching their music and making their followers eager to have more from them.
They have played in almost all of Mexico alongside monsters like Polyphia, Pretend or And So I Watch You From Afar, and in 2019 they joined the ArcTanGent line-up, being one of the three Latin American bands to play and sharing the main stage with Elephant Gym, Meshuggah and Caspian, to mention some. The band embarked on their first European tour, reaching more and more ears in the Old Continent and collecting priceless memories.
Today, we are proud to present their new single ‘El Neonato’ (which translates to ‘The Newborn’). This track is part of a series of singles the band is currently working on which will be released later this year with the name ‘Toy Rock’.
‘El Neonato’ is a joyful song, opening with a marching drum line, and as it goes on, the bass and then the guitars intertwine. Axel Ibañez, who plays one of the guitars said ‘(we want to) prove our technical side, but also the wish to be a band that makes people jump, scream and play. Make them have a rush of different emotions.’
The band’s signature sound is like no other, and the level of technique presented in this track is just overwhelming. Bands like this make me happy to be a math rock enthusiast, and remind me of why I love the genre so much.
You can listen to ‘El Neonato’ here, and while you are on it, give the rest of these guys’ music a listen.