“Jacaranda” [ft. Dubbel Dutch]

Trap, dancehall, “future reggaeton”—these are the sounds of Spain’s *other *electronic-music movement, the one you won’t find represented in glossy Ibiza superclubs or techno-tourist hotspots. And at the forefront of the movement is Bad Gyal, a 20-year-old singer with a no-fucks-given attitude wrapped in silky Auto-Tune. (“Sólo quiero el money/Dónde está el cash, there you find me,” she coos on 2016’s bewitchingly hypnotic “Mercadona.”) Bad Gyal first broke through a year ago with “Pai,” a Catalan-language remake of Rihanna’s Caribbean-flavored “Work,” and her new single, “Jacaranda,” makes an even more explicit link to dancehall: Its producer is Dubbel Dutch, a Los Angeles beatmaker with a passel of credits for Popcaan.

Bad Gyal’s best work so far has been distinguished by its eerie, translucent gleam, and on “Jacaranda,” Dubbel Dutch dials up the blacklight until his staccato synths seem to pop with vivid, fluorescent color. The trim drum programming splits the difference between dem bow’s loping cadence and trap’s precision-machined snap, but the tune is mostly held together by empty space and the sounds that sail through it—like a strange, distant cry that goes streaking across the speakers every few bars, sounding for all the world like a wailing baby in the next apartment. But it’s Bad Gyal’s armor-smooth, Auto-Tuned croon that keeps you transfixed. This time, she opts for Spanish mixed with English, purring to her partner on the dancefloor: “So papi come closer to me tonight/Que yo tengo culo pa’ rebotar”—or something along the lines of, “I’ve got an ass to bounce.” At its heart, “Jacaranda” is a love song, though the real object of her affections might just be reggae itself. “I’m not in Jamaica,” she admits, “But let the world boom from the dancehall.”