Empanadas Ilegales

Empanadas Ilegales

LABORATORIO TROPICAL

We Are Time

***Somewhere between Vancouver and Montreal, between cumbia and the cosmos, between the apocalypse and the dancefloor, there is a laboratory.Inside it, Empanadas Ilegales have spent nearly a decade breaking tropical music down to its bones, recombining it under pressure, and testing what comes out the other side. LABORATORIO TROPICAL, their fourth album, is the report from the lab.The record came together in the way the band works best: in motion. The first sessions happened at the tail end of their Fall 2025 tour, tracked at Sud Ouest Studios in Montreal with engineer William Poulin, with ideas channelled straight from the road. The stems then traveled west to Vancouver's Afterlife Studios, where the record took shape over a handful of sessions that were mixed by John Raham. These sounds were fine-tuned by Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer Adam Ayan; the resulting album is a dramatic journey through Empanadas Ilegales’ expanding psychedelic universe.

Empanadas Ilegales

Sancocho Trifasico

We Are Time

***Empanadas Ilegales, Vancouver’s electrifying psychedelic cumbia and salsa ensemble, have been captivating audiences with their infectious rhythms and high energy performances since 2017. Formed from late-night jam sessions among friends with roots in Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Canada, the band quickly became a force in Latin American dance music, blending cumbia rhythms, guitar riffs, salsa-influenced brass, and elements of surf rock, free jazz, and West Coast psychedelia.Their new album Sancocho Trifásico, reflects the same festive spirit of improvisation that fueled their early days. Named after the traditional Latin American stew, the record is seasoned with experimental synth textures, slinky dub grooves, and pulsing percussion. It’s a tribute to cumbia’s past and future, fueling dance and celebration with every note. The songs are inspired by cultural preservation, folklore, traditional music, and diasporic connections.The album was recorded at three different studios between 2023 and 2024. After exploring analog techniques at Vancouver’s SAE Studios, the band moved to percussionist Daniel Ruiz’s studio, which enabled them to colour the sound with various woodwind, percussion, electronic, and string integrations in a free-flowing environment. The recording journey wrapped with engineer John Raham at legendary Vancouver studio Afterlife.

Empanadas Ilegales

Creepy Mambo: Rooftop Sessions

We Are Time

***Empanadas Ilegales were founded in 2017 amid the sweat and booze of summer house party jam sessions, and soon gained notoriety for their supercharged live shows around Vancouver. Influenced by the traditional cumbia and salsa classics they grew up with in their native countries of Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, and Colombia, the band has developed a sizable following through countless party-starting performances. Their expansive songs combine spellbinding guitar solos, surf riffs, and raucous saxophones, punctuated by irresistibly danceable rhythms.