At age 14, Díaz-Reixa left his home for Continental Europe to focus on a career in sports, but when that didn't work out, he moved to Barcelona, where he played drums in various bands, including Coconut with his guitar-playing cousin. It was while touring with Coconut in 2006 that the idea for El Guincho -- blending samples of his favorite tropicalia and calypso along with percussion and his own vocals -- came about. Alegranza was almost instantly compared to Panda Bear's Person Pitch and won El Guincho prized spots at both SXSW and the Pitchfork Music Festival, along with many favorable reviews. His second album, Pop Negro, recorded in Berlin’s Planet Roc studio and various locations around Spain, was released in September of 2010.

Díaz-Reixa spent the next few years working behind the scenes, producing albums for Extraperlo (Delirio Específico) and Los Punsetes ‎(Una Montaña Es Una Montaña) in 2012. He also did a remix of Björk's "Cosmogony" that same year. He resurfaced in 2014 under the name Trances and released an EP of sample-based tribal techno for John Talabot's Hivern Discs. Díaz-Reixa reverted back to the El Guincho name in 2016 with the Hiperasia album, a bubbling electro-R&B/pop album inspired by his fascination with a strip of Chinese bazaars in Madrid. ~ Marisa Brown