SAFETY TRANCE - Sacrificio

Luis Garbán Valdeón is a highly rated Venezuelan producer and DJ, currently based in Barcelona, known on the underground circuit under the alias Cardopusher, a project through which he operates within the avant-garde electronic scene, focusing on techno-rave-industrial sounds. With his most recent moniker Safety Trance, the intention is to explore new directions, fusing industrial club music with reggaeton, neo-perreo and urban Latin music, leaning on a greater number of vocal tracks and a skillful web of collaborations.
Luis had already carved out a bit of notoriety thanks to his work alongside friend and fellow countrywoman Arca, both on the “Kick” series and on the single “El alma que te trajo”, included on the debut EP “Noches de terror”, back in 2022. He subsequently worked with other major names from the avant-pop scene, such as Sega Bodega, Eartheater and Lolahol (Lourdes Leon, daughter of the Lady Ciccone herself, engaged here in the trance of “Except In Spring”), and many of the results can indeed be found right inside “Sacrificio”.

The sound put forward as Safety Trance is aggressive, dark, metallic, yet danceable at the same time. It takes the syncopated rhythms of dembow (the rhythmic backbone of reggaeton) and bombards them with techno distortion, acid synths and hardcore/gabber atmospheres. After the mini-album “Lágrimas”, released in late 2022, with “Sacrificio” Safety Trance consolidates the mix of deconstructed clubbing and abrasive Latin sounds. A record that flies by in a flash, 14 tracks in 28 minutes total that ideally bind the slums of Caracas to the most outrageous clubs of Barcelona. Darkness and polyrhythms aimed at stripping Hispanic rhythms of any pop sunniness, dragging them instead into a claustrophobic underground space.
“Sacrificio” stands as the programmatic manifesto of this mutation, a hyper-technological pagan ritual where Latin roots aren't recovered as an exotic affectation, but rather serve as the load-bearing structure supporting a cyber-punk aesthetic.

But the beating heart of the record lies in its hybrid, collaborative nature: “Sacrificio” wouldn't be the same without the presence of accomplice (and muse?) Arca. Their synergy across the brief runtime of opener “The Beat Drops” immediately sets the boundaries of the work, which then finds further levels of powerful deconstruction with the rapid one-two of “Inter i”/“Curiapo” and with “Puxa saco”, tracks that tear the song form apart until it collapses. Evocative manipulations, sonic transmutations, ecstasy and torture. No less decisive is the contribution of Sega Bodega and Eartheater, a deluxe pairing that introduces elements of mutant pop music, fragments of melody floating over a bed of distortion, orchestrating the record's most important track, the lulling “Most Of Me (Is Elsewhere)”, a lullaby of rare beauty that pairs well with “Panties” (featuring Mexico's Meth Math), proof of Safety Trance's skill in writing more atmospheric pieces. Other highlights come courtesy of “Hustlin” (with Thoom and Lilith) and “Wrd pms”, made solo but no less savage for it.

Also worth noting is the presence of Six Sex, another rising name from the South American circuit (she's from Buenos Aires), who makes a forceful entrance into the project on the whip-cracking “No me quiero dormir”. Where the record loses a few points is in the second half, when reggaeton gains more ground and the dramatic tension of the sound gives way to some slicker, more calculated choices (as in “Duro”).
It remains clear that, where other producers in the deconstructed club scene lose themselves in intellectual abstraction, Safety Trance is a master at keeping a fundamental quality intact: effectiveness on the dancefloor, flooring the accelerator while envisioning a middle ground where the boundaries between genres tend to blur. All of it conceived to restore a certain level of “danger” to club culture, which has by now become easy pickings for DJ/influencers busy flooding social media with selfies snapped inside luxury resorts in the most Instagrammable spots on the planet. With no appetite left for taking risks.

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25/06/2026