Ursula 1000 (ne’ Alex Gimeno) turns up the notch on his classic mishmash of retro loungecore, latin dance music, and funk on his latest album, Mystics. His latest effort still showcases great variety in influences as with his previous works, but this time around the beats pound harder and nearly every track is a club banger. Gimeno moves away from his Latin aesthetic toward more Middle Eastern-inspired tracks, best showcased on the title track ‘Mystics,’ an epic cut that’s as big and mysterious as it sounds. Says Gimeno, ‘I wanted to include other influences such as eastern psychedelia, booty bass, slamming clubbier sounds, goth rock, mythology, New York city life, cosmic disco, classic horror and still a thread of electro go-go (which never goes away!)….’
While such a mix of influences may seem bizarre and haphazard, Gimeno executes it quite skillfully, using vocals on nearly every song’a new thing for the New York DJ. The ‘Sista of Jamaican Funk’ Sista Widey is perfection on the undeniably body-moving electro-dancehall track ‘Step Back.’ The following song, ‘This Magick,’ could just as well be from a completely different album, featuring whispered, slinky and dangerous-sounding vocals against an urgent and strange background of noise reminiscent of a score of an avant-garde action film. This album isn’t really the Gimeno we’ve come to know and love, but change can be a good thing. It’s a risky and forward-looking venture, devoid of a dull moment, and entertaining from start to finish.

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