Root Echoes is described by Pedro Elías Corro, better known as DJ Babatr, as “a celebration of resilience,
joy and solidarity on the dancefloor.” The album offers a raw, powerful snapshot of the raptor house sound
in one of its most formative and expressive periods. Carefully selected from Babatr’s personal archive, it
connects ground-shaking tracks produced in Caracas between 2003 and 2007 with more recent material
that keeps the genre’s pulse alive today. Recognized as a foundational figure in the creation of raptor house,
Babatr shaped a style defined by its fusion of Afro-Venezuelan percussion, tribal techno, acid, Eurodance, and
the street-level intensity of Caracas working-class neighborhoods. His tracks spread organically through
minitecas, bootleg CDs, and street parties, becoming part of the shared sonic vocabulary of a generation.
These tracks were born within the vibrant miniteca scene of early-2000s Venezuela. Known locally as
changa, this was the catch-all term for the electronic dance music, house, techno, Eurodance, that powered
matinées and street parties. From that ecosystem, raptor house emerged as its own distinct identity, marked
by galloping rhythms, serrated synths, and hypnotic structures designed to energize and empower. Opening
with 2024’s “1 2 3 4 Ladies on the Floor”, the album delivers a relentless floor-filler that fuses technoid drive
with Venezuelan percussive textures, a contemporary statement of Babatr’s ability to refract global sounds
through his own lens. It then moves back to 2003 with “The Tech Sounds”, where trance-like synths spiral
around tough, wooden drum patterns in a track as raw and defiant as the dance floors it was built for.
These are not just tracks. They are sound documents of space, community, and survival, a genre built for
collective release and celebration, echoing from the barrios of Caracas to sound systems worldwide. More
recent cuts like “Let’s Do It” layer classic TR-909 kicks and echoing vocal stabs with synth work that nods
to foundational techno. “You I Wanna Bass” (2005) reimagines 90s Euro club leads with a Caracas edge. “Call
Space” channels the mysticism of pre-Hispanic flutes into shrill, trance-infused riffs, pulling the listener into
its own sonic ritual.
Root Echoes is an intimate and deliberate selection from over 700 tracks Babatr has recorded across two
decades. It captures the heartbeat of a movement that never stopped, music that traveled hand to hand,
through bootleg CDs, online sharing, and word of mouth—ultimately finding its way into the sets, remixes, and
samples of DJs around the world, resonating across global club networks[info sheet from distr.]