Early Days (2016-2019)

Early Days (2016-2019) is a 15-track compilation released on December 12, 2025 via Stones Throw Records, collecting previously unreleased and unearthed recordings made by Mauri Tapia — the Oxnard, California multi-instrumentalist and producer behind Los Retros — during his teenage years. All of the material was recorded in his parents' living room using nothing more than an old four-track recorder, giving the collection an intimate, lo-fi warmth that reflects the project's origins as a solo bedroom experiment. The tracklist spans titles like "Deep Sleep," "Room Gloom," "Old Times," "American Spirits," "Diabla," "To A Lover," and "Within This Love," running to nearly 47 minutes and painting a picture of an artist then working through influences spanning indie rock, soul, psychedelic pop, and R&B before fully crystallizing his sound.

Most significantly, the compilation includes the original recording of "Someone to Spend Time With," the song that would become Los Retros' breakthrough — a now Gold-certified single and the track that first brought Mauri to the attention of Stones Throw Records. Also featured is "Without You," accompanied by a companion visual edited by close collaborator Ross Harris from found footage of early Los Retros tour stops, lending the release a documentary quality. Released in the months before Los Retros' proper debut album Odisea (2026), Early Days functions both as an archival curiosity for longtime fans and as a portrait of a remarkably self-sufficient young artist finding his footing — recording fully realized songs alone in a living room years before any label attention, at a time when the band's name was still "retrospect."