Dillon Francis returns to his roots in his new EP, This Mixtape is Fire. The Los Angeles-based DJ/producer’s new EP is a seven-track barrage of pumping bass lines, Latin-influenced drum patterns, unique vocals and intriguing synthesizers. Francis is known for his work in the moombahton genre. He is widely considered one of the pioneers of the electronic music genre. Moombahton is a style of electronic dance music that fuses elements of house, Latin electronic music and jungle/reggaeton with wacky sounds and usually is set at a tempo of 110 beats per minute. In This Mixtape is Fire, Francis revisits some of the styles that put him on the map back in 2011 with his track, “Masta Blasta.” Francis collaborated with many celebrity artists for This Mixtape is Fire, including Calvin Harris, Skrillex, tropical house mogul Kygo and Bro Safari. For a huge fan of Dillon Francis, this EP is amazing. The album kicks off with “Bruk Bruk (I Need Your Lovin;),” which is a standard moombahton track that features a combination of bells and “whooping” synthesizers. When I heard that first “dembow” drum beat that distinguishes moombahton, I knew I would fall in love with the EP. My favorite of the seven tracks has to be “Bun up the Dance” with the electronic music legend Skrillex. The track combines Francis’ knack for funky and interesting sounds and styles with Skrillex’s unmatched sound design and drum processing skills to get this weird, but catchy, song that starts hard and ends even harder. Plus, from a fanboy point of view, seeing two of my absolute favorite artists finally come together to create a great song almost brings a tear to my eye. There is, however, one track that I feel should get an honorable mention. “Lies” differs a lot from the rest of the EP as it is a softer, slower track without a heavy drum beat or any funky synthesizers. Instead, the track trades those traits in for guitar solos and heavily Daft Punk-influenced vocals. It is a refreshing and new thing to hear from Francis, and it’s really impressive that he can switch between totally different genres and make them all sound great. Dillon Francis’s This Mixtape is Fire possibly is one of my favorite moombahton EPs, and I urge you to give it a listen as soon as you can.
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