If you’re like me, the first thing you did when you saw DJ Python‘s Club Sentimientos, Vol. 2, was ask, “where is volume one?” Well, it turns out there was no volume one. Club Sentimientos is a sequel to a non-existent record. And yet, in some ways, it really feels like an actual sequel, a natural continuation of the Python we have come to know and love. This is an EP that picks up where 2020’s Mas Amable left off, bathed in the same sleek, reverb-soaked ambient-reggaeton tones as its predecessor.
Back in my review of Mas Amable, I wrote that “in Python’s world, few sounds come to us cleanly or sharply” and that “everything sounds smudged and saturated at the corners”. As true as this was of Mas Amable, it may be even more accurate of the three-track Club Sentimientos. The first song, “Angel”, is an 11-minute headphone epic. Featuring a beat that’s half hand-clap and half kick drum, “Angel” winds its way through an ocean of echoing synths, expansive keyboards, and crisp mallet hits. The real magic of the track is the rhythms going under the primary beats—if you listen closely, each refrain of the central groove seems to contain a new ingredient. The beat adds and sheds new layers constantly—adding a snare here, a clap there—yet it never does so in a way that feels chaotic or disruptive. It’s always effortlessly smooth. What else would you expect from Pineyro?
The next track gets into classic Python territory. “TMMD (IMMMD)” is a wonky club stomper led by a lurching dembow beat and loopy chords. Floating above it all is a choppy vocal sample that sounds nervous and high-strung, like it’s struggling to keep pace with the beat. It’s possibly the only moment of the EP that you wouldn’t call peaceful—it’s buoyant but not sedating.
The EP closes out with the blissed-out almost-title-track, “Club Sentimientos Vol 3”. Here, Python takes his ambient-reggaeton sound to majestic heights. When you thought things couldn’t get any more beautiful than “Angel”, well, there’s “Club Sentimientos Vol 3”. While there’s plenty of the usual skittering percussion here, this track is defined more by its slow-churning melodies and syrupy ambience. On top of lush pads and a subdued reggaeton beat, Pineyro adds a beautiful six-note synth-lead that enters the mix whenever the pads fade out. It’s loopy, daydreamy, and mesmerizingly slow, like one of those old Super Mario games where the whole level slows down if you touch the wrong thing.
If Mas Amable felt watery, Club Sentimientos feels oceanic. It’s vaster, fuller, and more expansive than anything Bryan Pineyro’s ever made. Yet it sacrifices none of his characteristic bounce and swagger, fusing spine-tingling atmospherics with kick-ass riddims that will have you dancing (or head-banging to your headphones) for days. As DJ Python’s sound evolves, he continues to push in two directions at once—more club-ready reggaeton grooves, and more enveloping ambient warmth. Yet as the two features become more pronounced, they never drown each other out, which is what makes Pineyro utterly unique in the world of electronic music.