Ernest Gonzales has released music under a few different guises in the past few years, but his latest release, an EP called Atonement, is a unique collaboration with beatmaker, civil rights attorney, and San Antonio District 1 councilman Diego Bernal. The two met in 2008 when Gonzales was seeking out producers for a Texas-centric compilation for his Exponential label, eventually releasing two albums by Bernal and becoming friends in the process. Here, Gonzales has enlisted fellow local talent Nicodxmvs to twist their “Thirteen Gold Coins” track into an evocative, footwork-leaning exploration. Nicodxmvs does a good job of finding space within the mix to wring out some necessary emotion, pushing a vocal sample into the abyss while click-clack drums are zipped tighter with digital distortion. “Thirteen Gold Coins (Nicodxmvs Remix)” is bursting with energy, but moreso, has more than enough ideas to pique our interest in what he does next.

Thirteen Gold Coins (nicodxmvs Remix)