There’s a chasm in the music industry somewhere between bachata, merengue, metal and punk. Bronx-born Dominican duo Planta Industrial has spent the last two years bridging it.
On Sept. 19, family, friends and fans crawled across Inwood Saturday night to celebrate Planta Industrial’s 2-for-1 release of their singles, “MIA” and “Oyster Perpetual” in anticipation of their upcoming EP “Cutting Corners.”
The EP, set to release on Oct. 16, is the second volume of their ongoing project titled “Punk Wave Sin Barreras,” the first installment of which was released last year.
The crawl began at Inwood Bar & Grill on Broadway and continued with a quick pilgrimage to Dyckman St. with the first stop at República and finishing off the night at El Jefe.
AKA the Darknight (Andrew Adames) and Saso Worldwide (Roosevelt Castillo) have enjoyed a revelrous first two years of music-mashing and genre-gashing as Planta Industrial. After a tour spanning hotspots such as Los Angeles, Miami and Mexico City – and even a quick stop in familiar Santo Domingo – the Dominican duo returned to celebrate their new work with the people that inspired it, in the place that fostered it, with a message sent homeward bound.
The duo’s roots in the Bronx during the dawn of AOL, YouTube and perpetual connectedness as we know it set them up to experience the breadth of music genres that spanned genres and generations. Adames remembers going to friends’ house parties and hearing their music taste while introducing them to his own, all of them sharing what they had with new people of widening backgrounds and experiences.
The Bronx was, for them, a “diverse melting pot” that exposed them to a wider variety of music than what was typical for kids their age.
“I thought growing up that this was normal. I thought everyone listened to all these genres, but as I started moving around and going to different places, I realized that it wasn’t,” Adames said.
“To us, it feels second nature because that’s what we were raised in,” he said. “But I guess that’s why we are the way we are.”
In Volume 2 of “Punk Wave Sin Barreras” Planta Industrial stands firmly on the cross-genre bridges that they built in Volume 1 and further challenges convention and expectation, rebelling from precedent in favor of a new type of rebellion.
Where Volume 1 played with familiar styles in unexpected ways and allowed the world to get to know the Planta Industrial’s sound, Volume 2 is the product of the artists’ voices now unmitigated by the borders that Volume 1 set out to tear down.
“Now we can give them the stuff that we really want to show, because it’s more experimental, more refined, more edgy, more electronic,” Castillo said. “We’re calling this “Cutting Corners” because we felt that we already got the love from our community before we wanted to show them what we were really made of.”
That love radiating out of the crowd on Saturday was palpable. With custom cocktails tailored to each of their newly released songs, which blasted through any hope of casual conversation in every room, the energy was deeply celebratory and infectious.
One of the attendees of the bar crawl, Paulie, a Bronx native, recounted how she first heard Planta Industrial’s music.
“Social media. They had a few viral posts. I checked them out on Spotify and [have] been a fan since,” she said.
Getting the chance to celebrate their work in Inwood with the people that have supported Planta Industrial since the beginning gave Castillo and Adames the chance to reflect on what they’ve accomplished so far during Planta Industrial’s relatively short existence.
They’re proud of their work, but they’re just as proud of everyone that’s been a part of the process of getting there. Those people and their receptive feedback to what Planta Industrial has created is what Adames is most proud of.
Castillo, on the other hand, thought of his younger self when he mulled over his accomplishments and his representation of his home borough across cities and communities.
“I think this is the type of music that the kid me would listen to, so I’m very proud of that. That if I was 12, 13 years old, I would listen to Planta Industrial and be like, ‘this is my favorite band of all time’” Castillo said. “I feel like that’s what every artist should strive to: to feed your inner child. That’s where the best stuff really comes out.”
“The process is like therapy. It’s gonna happen, at least for me, regardless,” Adames agreed. “But seeing the feedback, I wasn’t expecting it like that, and I’m proud of it.”
When the Bronx Times spoke to the duo a year ago, just after the release of their first EP, they asserted a plan to stick to the rule of threes and finish off “Punk Wave Sin Barreras” with a third volume. Now a year later, on the eve of their sophomore EP, they’ve come a long way from where they started.
So, what’s the plan for Planta Industrial?
“Maybe you could ask us when the third one comes out,” Castillo said. “But we’re sticking to the plan for now.”
In the meantime, they had a few things to say to the Bronx kids that look up to them in the hopes of following the path that Planta Industrial has created.
“I think the kids now are even more experimental, so I want to ask them to put me on. Like, show me what’s up,” Adames said. “Because they’re doing it.”
Jill Tuthill is a freelance writer at the Bronx Times. She earned her degree in journalism from Manhattan University in 2025. She can be reached at jilltuthills@gmail.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
