Album Review: Woodseye - Neither Here Nor There
Label: NEW EARTH SOUND*
Released: April 10, 2025
Genre: Global Bass, Latin Tech
Tracklist:
01. Día de la Noche
02. El Mundo
03. DURO
04. Ñädu
05. CHE
06. Ya Tú Sabes
07. Mestizo
08. ARKO
09. Culture Vulture
A sonic reclamation of identity.
NEW EARTH SOUND* and its latest signee haven’t been around for a very long time, but I wouldn’t have known that if I listened to their latest release without any prior knowledge. Woodseye’s Neither Here Nor There is a drum-driven album that studies sounds from the Latin American diaspora as the Los Angeles-based Chicano artist grapples with his own sense of self.
All nine tracks are tied together with ancestral audioscapes that travel through murky spaces. From “Día de la Noche,” Woodseye sets the tone as he guides his audience through his own exploration of identity. Dark drums echo between the vocal chops and bird chirps and trills that create an organic foresty atmosphere you’re forced to trek through if you want to get to the end. “El Mundo” follows with bubbling synths that pop amid ritualistic chants, giving an almost voyeuristic role to listeners, as if stumbling upon something not meant for us. It’s a feeling that’s omnipresent throughout the album — a feeling that isn’t foreign to Woodseye.
“The title, Neither Here Nor There, speaks to the Chicano experience,” Woodseye said in a press statement. “The feeling of not being Mexican enough because I wasn’t born in Mexico, yet not ‘American’ enough because, in our society, my complexion marks me as other.” Whether or not he’s American is something he continues to work through as Mexicans are also rarely considered Native Americans despite their close genealogical bond, with a large population of Chicanos actually descendants of Native Americans. Through this album, he preserves those ties.
As a Filipino American, I can relate to that disorientation. Consistently disregarded from Asian contexts (and are widely compared to Mexicans), Filipinos also live in an ancestral limbo that causes confusion among our own people.
The record’s last song, “Culture Vulture” poses an question that goes beyond whether you can reclaim your own heritage as an American outsider; it also touches on the struggle of a Brown person’s place in dance and electronic music. As a guest of this Black American culture and tradition, how does one involve themself without taking space that isn’t meant for them?
Neither Here Nor There doesn’t aim to have definitive answers. It only promises to be self-aware enough to start the discussion. Woodseye is undeniably intentional with every sample and synth he injects into each track, and it resulted in an album that — through diligent research, raw open-mindedness, and genuine appreciation — successfully presents all sides of his identity.
