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Helado Negro and Reyna Tropical Form Helado Tropical, Share New Song “Tocando”
Helado Negro and Reyna Tropical debut Helado Tropical with “Tocando,” plus a summer album, tracklist, and two live dates.
Roberto Carlos Lange, better known as Helado Negro, has a habit of moving quickly from one idea to the next. Last year alone he put out the surprise EP The Last Sound On Earth, worked with Irreversible Entanglements and Vines, and only a couple of weeks ago surfaced with a cover of Sly & The Family Stone. Now he has folded himself into a new project with Fabi Reyna, who records as Reyna Tropical, under the name Helado Tropical.
Reyna brings a different but equally established path into the collaboration. Born in Mexico and raised in Texas, she has made her own records while also serving as a touring guitarist for Sleater-Kinney, and her playing sits at the center of the duo’s first release. Lange and Reyna met two years ago in North Carolina after a friend set them up to meet in the studio. What began as one session grew into a longer partnership, eventually becoming a debut album recorded across multiple states, sometimes in person and sometimes remotely.
This summer, Helado Tropical will release its self-titled first album. The lead single, “Tocando,” gives a clear sense of how the two voices fit together: both sing, Reyna threads florid guitar through Lange’s bubbling synth-beat, and the result lands somewhere in the zone of Spanish-language chillwave, if a little warmer and fuzzier than the genre tag suggests. Lange directed the song’s video, which carries a VHS-style haze that matches the track’s laid-back drift.
Helado Tropical is due out this summer, with the release date set for July 17 via Psychic Hotline. The duo has also lined up a pair of live dates so far, including shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The announcement arrives with the single, the tracklist, and the first look at where the project goes next.
Tracklist:
01 “Sensación”
02 “Tocando”
03 “El Tiempo”
04 “Soledad”
05 “Luna”
06 “Fluye”
07 “Sol”
08 “Déjate Caer”
09 “Un Calor”
Tour dates:
8/13 – Los Angeles, CA @ John Anson Ford Theater
8/15 – San Francisco, CA @ Yerba Buena Gardens
