Gabriel Garzón-Montano Returns With ‘Someone’

Gabriel Garzón-Montano revels in a slow-drip of funk on “Someone,” his first new song in more than three years. 

The singer whiplashes between confident-ish statements — “Now you got yourself a man/I been busy making other plans” — and blunt expressions of loss and confusion: “I needed you/ I don’t know what to do/You took your loving from me/And you gave it to someone new.” 

Most of “Someone” is unadorned, little more than a sludgy bass and an uncaring drum thwack. But on the bridge, Garzón-Montano demonstrates the full extent of his gifts, first with a series of anxious, anguished backing vocals (“what did you do?”) and then with an unexpected melodic change before the final hook. Even the bass line, which has been cycling through a handful of notes for the whole track, takes note of that flourish on the bridge; the bassist thumps out a bright, approving riff in response. (Garzón-Montano played all the instruments.) These embellishments land with all the more impact since the rest of the song stays relatively spare. 

Garzón-Montano’s last release was Jardín, which came out on the label Stones Throw in 2017. Jardín was accomplished, full of sly hip-hop soul and rich harmonies at one moment, then evoking Todd Rundgren or the Bee Gees the next.