Shanti Celeste

(This article’s English version was produced with AI-assisted translation)

Contemporary club music is increasingly criss-crossed by pop-inflected currents. Some examples? Avalon Emerson, a (more or less) tech-house producer who in 2023 released "& The Charm", a kaleidoscope of indietronica woven with dream-pop melodies. Or, more recently, the debut albums from Chaos In The CBD — a lush blend of lounge-like tendencies — and Young Franco, where R&B accents settle on rhythm structures of dance origin. Within this landscape, the melodic turn of Shanti Celeste comes as no surprise: a Chilean DJ-producer active for over a decade, known for her velvety deep-house beats, with "Loop One" (2017) standing out for its unique mix of delicacy and groove, perhaps thanks to that breakbeat laid over an acid base.

But "Romance" unfolds in a very different territory. Its nine tracks — whose lyrics, as the title suggests, revolve around the theme of love — are shaped by a smooth, soft-edged deep downtempo. And yet, for all its refined production and carefully sculpted textures, the album sometimes slips by without leaving much behind. It's an elegant and well-crafted work, but one that doesn’t captivate more than a finely curated boutique soundtrack might ("Softie"): there’s selection, intent, but that’s where it stops. There are danceable moments, of course, but it’s perhaps in the more relaxed passages that the artist finds fertile ground ("Watching"); and even there, the tracks evaporate like mist. Pleasant, yet lacking impact.

Perhaps her previous record, "Tangerine" (2019), had a clearer, more defined voice. Here, what remains is the textural component of dance music — the atmospheric element, meant to create a mood — which, when placed within a melodic-pop context, risks feeling more like a void to be filled than a deliberate aesthetic choice. An exception is the title track, with its near art-pop arrangement: possibly a true clue to the direction worth exploring. It’s clear that Celeste is attempting to distance herself from club culture, but the path ahead is not yet fully traced.

04/07/2025