PREMIERE: Saramalacara is Trapped in Corporate Hell in ‘Más Feliz’ Music Video

If there is one thing Argentina’s RIP GANG has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, it’s that they are visionaries. From Dillom’s blockbuster redefining of Argentine trap on 2021’s POST-MORTEM to the genre-chaotic productions of alien crooner K4 and a grunge rebirth amplified by acts like Nenagenix and ODD MAMI, the collective’s label Bohemian Groove has been putting in the elbow grease. The latest dazzling entry from the Buenos Aires braintrust arrived last week with Saramalacara’s Heráldica, a throbbing opus of saturated hyperpop and drum and bass swirling with medieval esotericism and dark web aesthetics. Premiering today on Remezcla, Saramalacara’s video for the downtrodden single “Más Feliz” encapsulates her many anxieties — from the ephemerality of fame and success to the way art can gradually become a corporate job. 

For “Más Feliz,” the Juan Cruz Larrosa-directed clip follows Sara as she meanders through a generic office space filled with ripped-up cubicles and scattered papers. Eerie shadows, looping shots, and blood-splattered walls hint at the hellish, repetitive nature of art as work. Meanwhile, the nostalgic chorus, “Cuando más feliz era / Cuando menos opciones tenía,” reminisces on the precarious thrill of being a curious kid tinkering with amateur poetry and free production software.

“’Más Feliz’ was born during a trip while we were working on the album,” says Saramalacara via email. “Its meaning, like so many other songs on the album, appeals to nostalgia and idealization. Working on my first album was very intense and I experienced many dark moments through the process. This song captures the mixed emotions of an artist that comes from limited resources, and who after a few years of working in music finds themselves in places and situations completely foreign to their past life.”

The mysterious rapper and singer kicked off the album’s promotional campaign earlier this year with a series of paparazzi photo shoots that harkened to Y2K-era tabloid fever while also commenting on the double-edged sword of Internet immortality. Heráldica, by definition, is the study of dynasties and coats of arms. It’s a concise mission statement for an artist that harnesses pop culture iconography and consistently adds jagged new entries to the canon. 

Saramalacara first turned heads with her 2020 Taichu collaboration, “Water,” a snarling trap ditty that cast the pair as rowdy teenage baddies terrorizing the local rave. Her strobing breakthrough “Guchi Polo” arrived months later, becoming a massive club hit and collaging kitschy, trashy references to MySpace fashions, Sony Erickson phones, and lo-fi camcorder footage. Fueled by these archaic Internet themes, Saramalacara’s dizzying 2022 EP eclips3 plunged deep into the darkweb, invoking thumping hyperpop and goth moodiness on riveting singles “Chrome” and the Rojuu-featuring “Flashlight.”

But while Heráldica again finds Saramalacara floating through the metaverse, she’s anxious about lawless digital existence this time. The lead single, “Sola,” is a guttural, funereal cry for help from the depths of Internet lonerism, while the video for “10percs” featuring Japanese AI pop star Hatsune Miku questions whether organic life is even necessary when creating club bangers. The video for “Más Feliz” is a culmination of this inner conflict, as the seven circles of corporate hell give way to a room occupied only by a crucifix and a small sheep. It underscores Saramalacara’s fear that she may yet be another sacrificial lamb for a music industry more preoccupied with profits, metadata, and social media code-switching than the people creating and engaging with art. The team that made this album possible includes producers Evar and Dayvan and creative director Dominique Barbouth.

“We wanted the album to mix aesthetics that interest us and examine how they intersect with society,” reflects Saramalacara. “[Our] imminent advancement with the Internet and new ways of communication, as well as how it changed us, the things it makes us miss, and how we romanticize the past.” 

“It’s very important to me that Heráldica feels like a new era, but also, that it pays tribute to the ones that came before,” she says. “From the beginning of the campaign, we wanted to involve the fandom in the narrative of the album without them knowing what to expect, and I really think we nailed it.”

Watch the premiere of “Más Feliz” below.