El Guincho

The artistic project of Gran Canaria musician Pablo Díaz-Reixa, centred on electronics, tropical pop and contemporary production.

El Guincho
Roles
Music producer · Composer · Musician
Genres
Electronic · Pop · Fusion · Experimental music · Tropical pop
Instruments
Voice · Programming · Percussion · Sampler
Activity
2007

Biography

Pablo Díaz-Reixa is a Gran Canaria musician and producer known artistically as El Guincho, associated with electronic experimentation and the international projection of Canarian pop.

Open biography

Music career

Pablo Díaz-Reixa has lived in Barcelona since 2002, after studying Audiovisual Communication, and was part of the Coconot project before El Guincho was consolidated as his own alias. In 2008, aged 24, he had just released Alegranza, the record that projected him beyond the Canary Islands. Pop Negro followed in 2010, then Piratas de Sudamérica, Vol. 1, and finally HiperAsia in 2016, a return that placed him once again in the international circuit. In parallel he developed a career as producer and composer for other artists, especially Rosalía.

Contribution

El Guincho matters because he turned a Canarian sensibility into an exportable electronic language, visible from Alegranza and later consolidated in Pop Negro and HiperAsia. His work helped define a tropical and experimental pop approach that became highly influential in Spanish music criticism, and his later role as Rosalía’s producer reinforced that presence in contemporary popular music.

Style

His music works from a pop-and-electronic base shaped by afrobeat, dub, tropicalia and early rock. Alegranza is built from Spanish chants, tribal rhythms, ghostly harmonies and unpolished but strongly rhythmic studio production. Pop Negro keeps the pulse but makes the material colder and more fragmented, while HiperAsia shifts toward an urban and Asian-market imagery. His later work as a producer draws him closer to contemporary pop production and to layered arrangements, processed voices and digital percussion.

Repertoire

His repertory focuses on Alegranza!, Pop Negro, Piratas de Sudamérica, Vol. 1 and HiperAsia. Standout songs include Palmitos Park, Antillas and Kalise on the debut; Bombay, Novias and Ghetto Fácil on Pop Negro; and Comix on HiperAsia.

Legacy

His legacy is visible in the normalisation of a Canarian electronic sound open to the Caribbean, Africa and Latin America, and in the influence Alegranza had on later beachy, danceable indie sounds. His production stage with Rosalía added another layer: it turned a musician who emerged from the Canary Islands into a key figure in Spanish pop production in the 2010s.

Canary Islands connection

His Canarian connection rests on his birth in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, on the memory of Coconot and Folías, and on a body of work that reuses island rhythms and materials as a starting point for a global language.

Works and recordings

2007

Palmitos Park

Canción destacada del debut Alegranza! y representativa de su primer vocabulario sonoro.

2007

Antillas

Tema del debut asociado al imaginario atlántico y tropical del proyecto.

2007

Kalise

Una de las canciones que formaron parte del impacto de Alegranza!.

2010

Bombay

Tema considerado el más logrado de Pop Negro.

2016

Comix

Primer single de HiperAsia con Mala Rodríguez, ligado al retorno del proyecto.

Timeline

  1. Nacimiento

    Nace en Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

  2. Barcelona

    Fija su residencia en Barcelona en 2002 tras estudiar Comunicación Audiovisual.

  3. Alegranza!

    Publica Alegranza!, debut en solitario y disco de irrupción de su carrera.

  4. Premio Música Independiente

    Alegranza! recibe el premio al Mejor Álbum de Pop en los Premios de la Música Independiente.

  5. Pop Negro

    Publica Pop Negro, segundo álbum en solitario publicado por Young Turks.

  6. HiperAsia

    Lanza HiperAsia, un retorno que lo reconecta con la crítica internacional.

  7. El Mal Querer

    Asume la producción y dirección musical del álbum de Rosalía.

  8. Latin GRAMMY

    El Mal Querer, con créditos de Pablo Díaz-Reixa, gana el Latin GRAMMY.

Sources

El GuinchoCanariWiki - Gobierno de Canarias ↗Pronto sabrás quién es El GuinchoEl País ↗Pablo Díaz-Reixa, alias El GuinchoEl País ↗Un bazar chino como inspiraciónEl País ↗El Guincho: Alegranza! Album ReviewPitchfork ↗El Guincho: Pop Negro Album ReviewPitchfork ↗El Guincho Returns With Hiperasia, Shares "Comix" Featuring Mala RodriguezPitchfork ↗2019 Latin GRAMMY Awards: Complete Nominees and Winners ListGRAMMY.com ↗