Mexican-American producer Delia Beatriz, known professionally as Debit, has unveiled her extraordinary second album that radically transforms Afro-Latin dance music into haunting ambient compositions. Desaceleradas (Decelerated) represents a bold departure from conventional electronic music, focusing on the slowed-down genre of cumbia rebajada.
The Art of Musical Deceleration
Following her 2022 breakthrough album The Long Count, which featured electronically processed samples of ancient Maya flutes, Beatriz now turns her attention to the 1990s trend of cumbia rebajada. This dub-influenced style takes the typically upbeat Afro-Latin dance genre of cumbia and reduces it to what she describes as a "seductive crawl".
The album draws inspiration from DJ Gabriel Dueñez's pioneering bootleg cassettes, with two of his earliest releases forming the foundation for Beatriz's experimental approach. Her process involves more than simply reducing tempo - it's a granular dissection of sound that forces listeners to confront the inherent strangeness of every musical moment.
Creating an Eerie Soundworld
Desaceleradas occupies a unique space between William Basinski's Disintegration Loops and DJ Screw's chopped'n'screwed production techniques. Beatriz transforms the familiar shaker-rattling rhythms and synth syncopations of cumbia rebajada into what she calls "unrecognisable ambient territory".
Tracks like La Ronda y el Sonidero and Vinilos Trasnacionales retain subtle hints of cumbia's signature shuffle and twanging synth melodies, but Beatriz's extensive use of tape hiss, reverb and melodic warping creates what one critic described as "an eerie, ethereal soundworld of nightmare fairground music and yearning drones".
Beyond Background Music
This is not your typical ambient album designed for passive listening. On Bootlegs, a single synth tone evolves into harsh industrial distortion, while Cholombia, MTY highlights the atonal dissonance within slow-motion melodies. Los Balleza resonates with cacophonous reverb that challenges conventional listening experiences.
Beatriz's meticulous sound manipulation creates constantly shifting textures that produce sensations comparable to sea sickness. This deliberate unease stands in stark contrast to typical meditative ambient music, demonstrating how slowness and subtlety can generate as much dread and discomfort as chaotic noise.
The producer achieves what many consider a remarkable feat: proving that reduced tempo and minimalist arrangements can contain profound emotional weight and complexity, transforming dance music into something entirely new and thought-provoking.
