- A versatile EP from one of New York's most reliable—and hilarious—party starters.
- Cesar Toribio's latest release is many things, but two in particular: a keen representation of the playful persona that endears him to so many in Brooklyn and beyond, and a mini revelation. The front half of his Tongue in Cheeks EP finds him at his most ribald and festive, pouring the energy of his Bring Dat Ass parties into two spicy heaters. On the EP's back end, things take a darker turn.
First track "No Pare" ("don't stop") is probably the biggest of the lot, a low-slung Latin ghetto house number that borrows the call and response from "El Tiburón," a 1993 merengue-house track from Dominican-American group Proyecto Uno. Toribio used to hear the track in his uncle's bodega in Newark, New Jersey as a kid, and this bumping reinvention is a celebration of his Dominican roots, purpose-fit for the club. Shame it wasn't released a few months sooner as it's got all the trappings of a summer anthem—southern hemisphere audiences might argue that it's right on time.
In a similar vein, and featuring the Prince-like vocals of "Afro-electro-disco-space-punk" duo The Illustrious Blacks, "Work Dat Shit" layers crunchy percussion, tooting synth lines and spacey bleeps into a tightly arranged percolator, a track that's all the more sexy for its slow pace and restraint.
Act Two begins with "Cimmaron Palace." Stripped of vocals and strewn with off-key, vaguely ominous chords, it aims for the head rather than the hips. Unlike what precedes it, it's easy to picture it slotting into an Special Request or Hodge set (or even more surprisingly, in their back catalogues). "Anti-Narcoleptic," is also vocal-free, deploying layers of drums, filtered stabs and warped notes to create another heads-down track that you might expect to hear around 4 AM at a Berlin techno party.
A DJ, producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, the Tampa-raised, Berklee-trained Toribio has always been a versatile musician (check the terrific 2021 soul-jazz-house LP he made and sang on as part of New York collective Conclave). The Tongue in Cheeks EP, his first on his own Bring Dat Ass label, performs the dual task of introducing him to a wider audience ("No Pare" should find favour with tech house DJs and his peers alike), and flexing a different muscle altogether. Ass-shaking abilities demonstrated, Toribio's proven he's got more in his arsenal.
Tracklist01. No Pare
02. Work Dat Shit feat. The Illustrious Blacks
03. Cimarron Palace
04. Anti Narcoleptic