DC Salas – To The Places I Call(ed) Home

Peruvian-Belgian artist DC Salas presents his impressive second album ‘To The Places I Call(ed) Home’ – a deeply personal work that explores themes of memories, grief and the transient notions of home. The 10-track LP features collaborations with Curses and emerging Moroccan artist Zaatar and encompasses his broad sound palette from house, progressive and New Beat, to acid, Goa and trance.

The tracks were crafted in his Brussels studio and on the road over a two-year period, seeing the Fuse and Kiosk Radio resident draw healing from the writing process after a succession of personal bereavements. The album tracks became vessels to preserve memories – both of people and places – while serving to re-connect him to his father’s birthplace of Peru, having travelled back to Lima in the wake of the sudden death of both his Godfather and Grandmother. But beyond this, it’s an album that brims with positivity and bright, light dancefloor moments as Salas seeks new beginnings without his dearly beloved..

There’s a superb cadence to the album that begins with the new-wave melody lines and punchy prog b-lines of ‘Regreso’, meaning ‘come back’ in Spanish. It’s a track that connects back to his Peruvian roots, as background noises from a trip to Lima with his father add colour to the composition. The artist thought he was too busy to travel back to his Latin homeland, but in the wake of his family losses, he got a perspective check.

Joli Rêve is a standout album highlight, a constant in Salas’ sets over the last two-and-a-half years, as well as that of good friend Éclair Fifi’s. This golden prog houser and classic-in-the-making has become a favourite closing track at Fuse and was the first track crafted for ‘To The Places I Call(ed) Home’. ‘Homesick’ is a track Salas wrote to “fight against the nostalgia of lost places” – whether it be his grandmother’s home in Lima or his Belgian grandparents’ house. It's a propulsive cut that barrels through the air with intent as touches of Goa and trance swell in the atmosphere. A festival favourite, ‘El Juego’ has been building steam throughout 2024, with an earlier version heavily supported by Evan Baggs to the point the UK artist made his own dubplate to play, which went down a storm in fabric’s Room 1. It’s a brilliant slice of UK-bass influenced tackle that features Salas’ own meccanoid vocal throughout.

Salas’ collaborations are prime examples of his sonic breadth and high points throughout ‘To The Places I Call(ed) Home’. ‘Laminar Flow’, his joint cut with France-based Moroccan Zataar, has an otherworldly energy and combines a heavy bottom end with an intergalactic melody line that swings between the trippy and the psychedelic. His link-up with the lauded post-punk artist Curses brings brooding atmosphere in spades. ‘Gallery’s Endless Dreams’ is a heavy outing with a foot in new-wave and dark disco alike, topped off with Salas’ seismic drum work.

Elsewhere album tracks ‘Sol’, ‘Movimentos’ and ‘A Precious Loss’ espouse a timeless nostalgic dancefloor energy, taking in influences from early prog and trance, to acid and UK-influenced dance, reinforcing the Brussels native’s range.

The album ends with the masterful prog trancer ‘Au Revoir’, that feels like it was taken straight from a classic Gatecrasher Wet compilation, but with Salas’ fresh 2024 touch. The track is arguably the most meaningful on the album and samples some final words from his grandmother just before she passed.

“Home is where I live but not only. Home is where I feel happy. It might be my safe place for an hour, a night, a day, or a lifetime. It can be San Borja, Laeken, Rue Blaes. A dance floor or a record store. The most important are the memories linked to these precious places. They keep people alive, they comfort me. When you lose precious people, finding ways to move forward is key. Writing music about places and memories is my favourite way to learn to live without them. Each track in "To the Places I Call(ed) Home" is a journey through the spaces and moments that have shaped my life. It’s a tribute to the fragments of my past that continue to influence my present.” – DC Salas

‘To the Places I Call(ed) Home’ is out 1 November 2024 on R.A.N.D Muzik x Echocentric and follows DC Salas’ ‘Pressure’ EP from 2023, which was included in Bandcamp and DJ Mag’s best monthly music round-ups. Early DJ support for key album tracks come from Raresh, Jennifer Cardini, THC, Hammer, Massimiliano Pagliara, Cromby, D Tiffany and more.