Brooklyn-based trio Tipa Tipo fuse the spirit of ’70s soft rock and disco to create “Grifo.” Grifo is the Peruvian slang word for gas station, and the bilingual (English/Spanish) track is a playful portrait of friends meeting up at a local gas station as they face an impending climate change apocalypse. The song is a reflection on how life runs on death (“la vida corre sobre la muerte”) – the ancient bodies of dead animals become the fossil fuels we use to power our cars, just as the dead bodies in cemeteries give nutrients to the biggest and healthiest trees in the city. These heavy themes unfold within the musical backdrop of a tropical disco party, blending Peruvian chicha guitars, sultry vocals, and vibey electric pianos.
Tipa Tipo blend nostalgic soft rock and disco to concoct their fresh take on tropical yacht rock en español. Originally formed in Lima, Perú, the band plays live as a trio fronted by co-producers Adele Fournet and Felipe Wurst with Jordan Auber on drums.
The band packs the sonic force of a much bigger ensemble by combining contrapuntal synth bass lines, tight vocal harmonies, and intoxicating guitar and electric piano textures. Soon Tipa Tipo will release their first full-length LP, Cintas, featuring Fournet and Wurst’s distinctive production style synthesizing retro pop with latin rhythms.
The “Grifo ” music video, directed by Adele Fournet, features the site-specific videodance duo CorpusMedio, a longstanding collaboration between Fournet and the Peruvian choreographer Moyra Silva.
“In our work, we explore movements that are inspired by and in dialogue with public spaces. For this video, we filmed in Brooklyn gas stations, cemeteries and a scrap metal processing plant, pulling from the aesthetic of non-narrative experimental films like Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi. We blend our choreography with a collage of archival footage to create a series of tableaus portraying the relationship between fossil fuel consumption, death, and human connection.”
“Grifo” comes in the wake of many recent successes for Tipa Tipo, including their Lincoln Center debut and the release of their first EP, El Chari (2021), which gained attention from music outlets in Mexico (Milenio, Playlist Magazine), Perú (Rock Achorao), as well as NPR’s Best New Latinx playlist and official Spotify playlists including Dreamy, Canción del Día, Novedades Indie, Vibra Tropical and others.
