Andrés Ávila, the Colombian artist behind the moniker Binary Algorithms, offers a surprise with his debut album, Reminiscencias. Far from the expected sound of harsh, minimalist, “pitch-black techno,” Ávila’s music is characterized by a bold, highly saturated production style where synths and drums are expanded into large, three-dimensional forms. While his past work was deeply conceptual—exploring themes from Cartesian philosophy in a “cyber-network” to a socio-political, Drexciya-inspired underwater civilization named Tunja—Reminiscencias marks a turn toward the personal. The album explores his own life and upbringing in Colombia, resulting in deeply emotional, “big-hearted” techno.
The sonic tapestry of Reminiscencias is vast and cinematic, layering heartfelt melodies with the sounds of urban life and traffic. Ávila proves to be a masterful sound designer; his synths can take on the texture of Hollywood strings (“Cenizas”), and arpeggios glow like lightbulb filaments (“Something to Fight For”). The mixing is exceptionally clear, with polished drums creating funky, broken patterns that provide palpable force without clouding the atmosphere. This clarity and spatial depth give the album a larger-than-life quality, conjuring images of ’00s thriller scores crossed with the peak era of early-2010s club culture. Tracks like “To Resist and Break” feature the tense, driving energy needed for a chase sequence from The Bourne Identity, yet they are underpinned by a profound emotional current, recalling the precision-engineered, yet melodically rich, work of artists like E.R.P. or The Exaltics.
Ávila creatively expands beyond the traditional boundaries of techno. The LP utilizes unique sketches, such as “Clamor de Dolor”—which sounds like a church organist reinterpreting a Burial track—to break up the dance floor intensity. While it delivers straightforward moments, like the acid-laced “Frágiles,” the album is most compelling when it employs unexpected sonic juxtapositions. Here, familiar genres are fragmented and rebuilt: Detroit electro is paired with flamboyant hand drumming (“Sub-Periphery”), dub-techno chords surface (“To Resist and Break”), and “Future[Delusion]” sits perfectly between Shed’s rhythmic complexity and Sasha’s melodic prog house. The result is a sound that integrates the remnants of electro, prog house, drum’n’bass, breaks, and dub—a process that makes the term “techno” feel insufficient for this novel dance music.
Despite the song titles hinting at resistance and the artist’s stated intent to showcase an “urban” Latin American identity distinct from reductive “tropical” sounds, Reminiscencias is defined by its abstraction. In an era where identity is often overtly communicated, the album contains not a single word or human voice. It is a testament to the power of instrumental music, allowing the listener to derive universal meaning—broad strokes of fear, hope, triumph, and resignation—solely from the sounds of the machines. This old-school, machine-focused approach is ultimately infused with an expansive spirit that transcends any single story.
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