Salvador Navarrete, born in Galway, Ireland, 1992, and raised in Glasgow, and he largely taught himself to produce music using online tutorials at 16 years old. He belongs to a generation of artists that are creators - singers, musicians and producers who make music from anywhere in the world using their computers. The way they get to collaborate with one another is a sea change in contemporary pop music. Imogen Heap’s Speak For Yourself did really set a precedent. And Bodega’s work has the immense ability to live and breathe today's underground pop music moment is; no matter some little retro and necessary tweaks, his new album sounds fresh, gleaming and contemporary. Like a modern shrine to this moment.
The icing on the cake for the record comes with two massive features. Charlotte Gainsbourg duets with Sega Bodega to sing the contra-freudian suggestive anthem
Naturepathe. Cicada is my favourite track in which
Arca and Bodega are two ditzy brainiacs of our time. Like a laptop screen, there’s a shining and vibrant light that Luci, both the character and the concept, pours in the album cover shot by Aidan Zamiri. And we get to visit the softer part to them in the final tracks
Romeo and
Um Um, that go through Salvador's UK garage style to materialise R&B or vocal ballads all whilst staying true to his own voice.
Oklou,
Shygirl, Brooke Candy, Caroline Polachek, Donna Missal, FKA Twigs and Slowthai are some of the names of the endless list of artists Sega Bodega has worked with. It’s impossible not to see a generational movement in the sound of these artists and the way they approach their careers and, most importantly, their sound and songwriting. As in every important movement in different eras of history, Sega is building his own monuments. Time will tell if they’ll remain symbolic but
Romeo definitely represents the importance of an artist that keeps growing and kindly giving us records like this; a true craft of its own.
