Born in the vibrant streets of Tijuana in 1987, Ford Proco began as an experimental project, crafting soundscapes from improvised instruments, found objects, and tape loops. Their early work embraced chaos and cut-up techniques, reflecting their boundary-pushing ethos. By 1991, Lauro Saavedra and Robert Castañeda emerged as the band’s creative core, driving its evolution forward. Over the next 37 years, their releases—comprising cassettes, compilations, and three influential albums—found audiences both locally and internationally. In the early ’90s, amidst Baja’s underground rave revolution, Ford Proco shifted its focus, channeling that raw energy into anthems that reverberated through underground dance floors, solidifying their legacy.
Often buried in the meticulous madness of their creative process, Ford Proco’s duo fixates on perfecting beats, bending progressions, and dissecting sound with obsessive precision. Recently, they have unearthed and reimagined their early tape work, merging it with modern programming to ignite their latest offering, Combustión Alfanumérica. Inspired by the disorder of today’s world, the album channels dystopia through sound, slipping seamlessly between dream pop, mutant electro, meta ambient, and synth-driven body music.
The largely instrumental tracks on Combustión Alfanumérica pulse with precision and purpose, a seamless collision of motorik rhythms and cerebral exploration. It’s dance music for dreamers, where movement meets thought, and every beat carries a deliberate weight. Cinematic in its scope and deeply reflective, the album’s gothic tones hold a quiet romance, entwined within its robotic reverberations. There’s a raw humanity here, emotional yet detached, skimming just above hyperreality—close enough to feel, distant enough to question. Rejecting the limits of genre, Ford Proco’s Autoconst style stands resolute, recalling the forward-thinking experimentation of Future Sound of London, Bruce Haack, Air, Stereolab, and Coil.
The video for Obreros del Silencio unfolds like a fever dream of fractured time, blending the mechanical bleakness of Metropolis with a chaotic collision of imagery. Robotic dystopia intertwines with raw performance, while stock footage of battles and surreal fragments dart across the screen. It’s a relentless montage, where humanity’s darkest impulses clash with its search for meaning, creating a vivid reflection of turmoil and time’s unraveling.
Combustión Alfanumérica thrums with Ford Proco’s restless energy, its sharp filters and unforgettable hooks delivering a distinct punch. Collaborations elevate the album: Ul4lume of Casino Shanghai lends her soulful warmth to “El Instante Previo,” while Javier Cortez and Angela Bloem add layered depth to “Piel de Angel.” The eerie echoes of “Human Bomb” reverberate like fragments of a fractured timeline, blending distorted samples with retrofuturistic synths to create a chilling atmosphere.
Listen to Combustion Alfanumerica below and order here. The album is out now via At At Records.
The album’s cover art is a surrealist collage by Steven Stapleton (Nurse with Wound), complemented by a sleek new Ford Proco logo and design by Acamonchi.
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