Marcelo Tijerina, a.k.a. Mexican Dubwiser has been in this ñu-cumbia thing since the very beginnings of the genre. In fact, as I've already mentioned on this blog before, he was of a great influence to me at one point, because he was the first DJ I saw spinning Toy Selectah-produced cumbia remixes back when I still didn't have the balls to do so myself. It was after I saw him opening for Kinky that I said to myself, hey, I could be doing that myself, that could be me. And eventually that led me to create that new DJ persona that started spinning ñu-cumbia in San Francisco's scene back in late 2006.
It took him a long time and a bunch of hard work and perseverance, but after all those many years and a couple of successful bootleg comp releases, Mexican Dubwiser finally got his official debut album out.
It's packed to the rim with top-notch guests and there's a second disc (in the Mexican version of the album only) with plenty of remixes. As expected cumbia is the glue that holds it all together but there are many other spices in the mix. Now of course, ñu-cumbia isn't really blog-worthy news anymore and most of the hipsters who were into it a couple of years ago now are impatiently looking at their Twitter feed to see what's the next cool thing coming after moombahton. Marcelo isn't here to please those types trying to come up with the next cumbia-trap bullshit. Leave that to soundcloud babies, I say. There are some really good joints here for those true heads who stuck around and I'll be spinning them next time I have a chance.
When Palenke Soultribe presented Oro, the first third of their Afro-Colombian conceptual trilogy, they announced it as the pop-song-oriented one. It was shinny like gold, get it? It's sequel Mar was supposed to be all about chill out, laid-back atmospheric music and the last chapter Fuego, would complete the colors of the Colombian flag with by igniting the dance floor.
Somewhere along the way, it seems that the LA-based Colombian duo lost interest in keeping with that rigid formula. I think they just cracked the code of what was the successful formula for their tracks and decided to keep exploring it and perfecting it. It took them some time to accomplish this, but four years after Oro, Mar is finally here and there's nothing quiet about this sea. The pop song format of its predecessor remains in center, with plenty of guests doing the vocals, but the emphasis is on the beats that are irresistible. Now I get the feeling that they find themselves in that tricky place where they're not just a couple of producers doing DJ-oriented tracks like in their beginnings but they're becoming an actual band, with a signature style.
There's a lot of variety to please all sorts of crowds from the more mainstream clubbers to the ñu-cumbia hipsters (if they still exist). My favorites and the ones that have more chances of getting on my DJ-set rotation are "La Gozadera," "Blanco & Negro" and "El Cometa" but there's plenty more to dig in so I strongly recommend you get the whole album.
RVSB is basically what happens when you mashup DJ Raff and Latin Bitman. Individually known as two of the best DJ/producers to ever come out of the progressive Chilean hip-hop scene of the '90s, when they join forces the resulting amalgamation is greater than the sum of its parts, and weirder.
From the album's title you might wrongly presume (as I did) that it's a DJ battle (remember those?). However this has nothing to do with a DMC championship or with turntablists showing off tricks to impress the judges or humiliate their opponent. This album is, instead, what you get when you lock two beat nerds and sonic architects in a studio with a bunch of hi-tech gadgets and ask them to come up with some futuristic shit. So there's no real "vs." on this Raff vs. Bitman, in fact you can't even tell one appart from the other.
What you can certainly do is compare this release to what they've done in the past and if that's what you were expecting, you might be either disappointed or surprised, because it's radically different. There's none of the glorious boom-bap beats that Raff used to spin on his Raffolution solo debut and none of the bossa-nova samples that Bitman has employed both on his solo stuff and on his more recent Ritmo Machine collaboration. Also, there're no guests stars (they both had collaborated with Ana Tijoux in the past, among many other Chilean hip-hop luminaires) except for some sparse vocal drops by pop chanteuse Francisca Valenzuela and rapper Chico Claudio.
What you will find is some modern top notch EDM with a lot of synths and heavy bass, very current sound. Sure thing, I would've loved if they'd kept at least some more break beats and scratch and made this less abstract. But I have to stand up and applaud them for having gotten away with Nacional Records releasing this album as is, without coercing them to add some Latin flavor in the mix (or adding the word Latin to the album title... or the artist's name). There's nothing explicitly Latin about this, except for two or three words en español and the fact that the album was recorded in Chile by Chilean artists so I'm sure the demographically segmented media in the US will have a hard time pigeonholing this and the label will have a hard time trying to get their attention. So yeah, in the end, I also have to give it to Nacional for having the balls to actually release this difficult album and not always falling into the niche clichés.
First I look at the presentation and I'm all like wow! I can't simply wrap my head around the idea of a Mexican indie band releasing their music in this format: clear vinyl LP with a plastic clear sleeve. I mean, these guys must be huge (or be spoiled the sons of rich parents) to get their music pressed in this prestigious and extra-expensive format. My next obvious thought is: why isn't anybody, this side of the border, talking about them? And the answer is a bit depressing. It's not that their music isn't good enough, it's that their music isn't Latin enough, so it doesn't quite fit the strict rules of the segmented US music market. This record has ten million more chances of being picked up to be played on my DJ sets than anything Nortec has ever released. Still, the media, the labels, the critics and the public in the US love Nortec mainly because of their use of chuntie norteño samples over their clunky techno. Dapuntobeat just makes some dope straight-up funky electronic dance beats (somewhere between Daft Punk and LCD Soundsystem) and if it wasn't for their Spanish lyrics (which are present on just a few tracks) you wouldn't be able to tell they're from Latin America. So, in essence, they don't have the exotic south-of-the-border flavor that modern Latin needs in order to be marketed to the US-based crowds. Fucking sad. But at the same time I'm happy they're sticking to their guns. If they'd start playing congas over every beat and wearing ironic sombreros or pointy boots they'd probably get signed by a US-based label like Nacional and then their music wouldn't be pressed on vinyl like this any more. Buy it on iTunes (vinyl currently available exclusively in Mexico)
I have nothing but respect for Latin house maximum pioneer Louie Vega. However, I'm not much of a house fan, per se, so for obvious reasons Kenny Dope is and will always be my favorite half of the Masters At Work. Still, when I heard that Fania Records was coming out with a new release, their first release of brand new original music in decades (they've been doing mostly reissues and remixes in this new incarnation of the label so far) and it was going to be one by Louie Vega's live band project, I was extremely excited for it. I really loved what Joe Claussell did for Fania last year and I was expecting something on that sense.
Was I disappointed when I finally listened to it? Well, yes and no. Don't get me wrong there's some great musicianship in this Elements of Life band and I think they're a good match for Fania. It's very soulful, as expected, and more on the chill side than the dance floor, but still, some beautiful music. Problem is, all the lyrics are filled with optimistic, positive, uplifting messages and after a couple of tracks I get annoyed by that. Sorry, I'm too cynical, and I can only take save-the-children-heal-the-earth type of songs in very small doses. I need more Pedro Navaja on my Fania, I need more gritty streets. This is too clean, too shinny, too sterile.
Anyway, that's just one of the 2 CDs in this pack. The second one is an hour-plus-change mix set of reworked Fania classics and covers and I loved it from beginning to end. Just for that second CD, it's worth picking this one up. I would usually suggest you get the vinyl edition, but you'd be missing this mix, so in an unlikely move, I'll recommend you to ignore your instincts, don't judge this album by its horrible cover, and buy the CD instead.
And here you have it, the first contender to lead the 2013 album of the year list. No surprise there. I could've written that statement before even pushing play on the CD player and listening to the album. But I've just listened to it, the whole thing, from beginning to end, in order, as it was meant to be listened, on my headphones. And such clarification probably seems ridiculously redundant coming from somebody that reviews albums on a periodical basis, but honestly, I rarely dedicate that kind of unidirectional attention to the average music release that lands on my for-review-consideration pile. I'm rather lazy. The reason why this particular album deserved such exceptional treatment is no secret either. Of all albums that could be labeled under Latin music released in the last couple of decades, this is one of the most ambitious ones--no questions about it. So much so, that it could be argued that it's even, in some way, arrogant. But I'm not gonna go there--yet. I'm gonna start describing Presente as an epic masterpiece. And I'm using epic in the Conan-type movie sense of the word, not in the devalued meaning that the word epic currently has because of its overuse in the hipster blogsphere (OMG, epic fail!). If I was to try and find something to compare this album with, I'd probably have to dig into untapped territory (for me), something like, you know, symphonic heavy metal. I've never been a metal head myself, but many of my closest friends back home were and I followed them to more than a few concerts. Well, every time I see Bajofondo live, that's exactly what they remind me of: that same kind of overwhelming injection of pure power, virtuoso execution, theatrical performances and probably even equal levels of high-octane testosterone. That's the exact same thing I've just experienced right now listening to the album on my headphones. Full disclosure: my perception may be affected by recent memories, I saw them live last night. However, I'm willing to bet you'd agree even if you've never seen their show (how dare you?). Just listen to the album's explosive second track and you'll be instantly transported to that state, you'll know what I'm talking about. In an era when home-made digital albums recorded on a laptop rule the industry, Bajofondo's Presente is almost an anachronistic rarity. It takes us back to the times of musical overindulgence when megastars had infinite budgets to record conceptual albums with capricious mood swings, "I don't like the color of this grand piano! Bring me a white one!" Also, when was the last time you got a new release with more than twelve tracks? This one has twenty one! Bajofondo boasts a level of sophistication that effortlessly surpasses 99% of all other Latin music released nowadays, by lightyears. Unfortunately this is the type of shit that feeds the already overinflated ego of Argentines who tend to be obnoxious with their nationalistic pride for the achievements of the likes of Messi or the new Pope. Me being from Argentina, I can't help finding some internal conflict there, because I'm not at all patriotic and I don't wanna be like "hey you, rest of Latin America, try coming out with an album like this," but with every listen (it's been three times already since I started writing this) the sheer reality of it pushes me more and more in that direction. It's unavoidable. The album is that good. And as I'm finding out, it gets better with every play. Nevertheless, it's definitely not easy-listening background music, like most of the avalanche of clones of Gotan Project that showed up out of nowhere in between 2003 and 2006. Listening to Bajofondo's third opus requires a certain level of commitment, it can be an exhausting, demanding experience. There's a lot going on, too many layers of refined orchestral arrangements and even some digable samples hidden there for the attentive listener, secret jewels hiding in a treasure chest, shining thanks to some superb (as expected) mixing and engineering. Of course, there's something to be said about the risk of over-producing and ending up with pedantic results (while it's also true that many times genius can be found in tiny DIY recordings, with just some creative lyrics and a couple of chords on a cheap acoustic guitar). But I don't think that's the case here. As much as it is complex in its composition, I don't think its pretentious at all. Nor does it fall into the easy trap of being "experimental" and doing crazy stuff that only an elite will appreciate. It still appeals to popular sensibilities and could easily reach massive commercial success across the board if properly marketed. I could keep going on, but I'm running out of synonyms for excellent and I'm starting to sound like a press release rather than a critique. I only wanna add that I really hope this big budget treatment they are enjoying with Sony as their new label will also translate into an upcoming deluxe double vinyl pressing (I don't see why not, after all Sony pressed double vinyl of Juan fucking Magán last year, right?). I wouldn't mind re-purchasing it and owning it in both formats. There, that's it. I managed to write a whole Bajofondo review without even once using the hideous portmanteau "electrotango."
Alternative review by my 4-year old step-daughter:
I'm blasting it out loud for the first time in the living-room's sound system while writing this review. "Código de Barra" explodes and she comes out from wherever she was hiding playing and exclaims "Woo! I like this!" She keeps on paying attention, "Pide Piso" plays and she goes "Oh! Funky! This one is like fashion show music." She starts modeling her new princess shoes. With "Pena en mi corazón," she learns and sings along to the catchy chorus before the end of the first listen, except, when Santaolalla screams "Tengo!" she says "Tango!" instead. She's that cute. After losing her for a bit, she comes back with "Cuesta Arriba" and starts dancing, then concludes: "this is great music!" The sad thing about it is that this little girl knows way more about music than the average party-goer I deal with on the regular at Latin-music parties, the types that would never appreciate Bajofondo and are happy dancing for the zillionth to "La Vida Es Un Carnaval."
Spain has been for many years the capital of rap purism. When it comes to rap in Cervantes' language, these guys pretty much set the standards back in the late nineties, and the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, outside of the US, followed suit. Spain has given us some of the most talented lyricists and beat makers but it also made Spanish-language rap boring, too academic and totally undanceable. I have a pile of vinyl records from that scene and some of them are amongst my all-time favorites (SFDK, Violadores del Verso, Sólo Los Solo, Tremendo), I value these as some of the most precious pieces of my collection, however I never pull them out when I go DJ at a party because it'd be impossible to make anybody dance with them.
Fortunately there are worthy exemptions to every rule. Enter Spanish Super Combo. I'm sure most of those backpacker b-boy purist of the Spanish rap golden era will totally dismiss this, the same way they dismissed Orishas and pretty much everybody else that tried to make their Spanish rhymes flow over dance floor-friendly beats with samples and/or arrangements of Afro-Latin music. I know this for a fact because I was one of those purists back then. For us everybody that was trying to mix rap with Latin beats was a sellout, was going commercial. Rap had to be all about brain-hurting, tongue-twisting, elaborate rhymes.
Well, fuck that. I wanna make people dance and these guys had found the perfect balance between rap and dope instrumental beats to please the most diverse crowds, even if they don't understand any Spanish. True, they don't have much of a "deep" message (they're a sort of a party band after all) and they most probably could never come up with a composition of Tote King's caliber but they have something all those purists lack, they have funky catchy beats that will get the Latina hotties in the club to shake their booty. So I can predict they'll be selling a lot of this vinyl LP to DJ's across all Europe and beyond, even to ñu-cumbia DJs who aren't into hip-hop at all will dig this. Also, the packaging art is pretty cool. Definitely worth paying for the international shipping.
The horniest Venezuelans are back with some more of their usual funky disco shit. I've written plenty about them in the past, and particularly about my love-hate relationship with their music and their audience. So I'm gonna skip that, since it all pretty much remains the same. It's understandable that after the great reception of their Grammy-awarded album Commercial they'd keep exploring that same line and come out with another album of purposely commercial pop songs. No disappointment there. Sure, my DJ/digger background begs for more deep funk, more risky fusions with Latin tropical genres(totally absent in this album) and if it's not too much asking at least some percussion breaks. But I know I can't expect that from them in their current phase when they seem so committed to perfecting the radio-friendly song formula (they got Cachorro López as a producer to guarantee that, once again). At least they keep surprising me with a few unexpected choices. Like evoking the classic Motown groove of The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" on the bass-line of the blatantly '80s pop tune that kicks off this new album after a hilarious intro that exclusively Spanish-speakers will get. And then there's that oddball of a song, properly titled "Mostro," that probably started as an inside-joke in the rehearsal studio with them pretending to be the cantina band from Star Wars, Episode IV. It's wacky as hell, but my inner nerd connects with them in those weird places, the same weird places that I know the hot Latinas in short dresses that pack all their live concerts will most probably never understand. Other than that, my favorite moment in their album is, as it's usually the case, when the singer gets the fuck off the stage and lets the band do their funky shit. In Repeat After Me that happens once, on "Robot Love," the track that has the most chances at entering my DJ sets. What I noticed about these guy's evolution is that now that they've fully incorporated English lyrics to their repertoire, for some reason they leave all the horny, lewd content for the Spanish-language songs and the English ones are more generic, about forbidden love and cheesy stuff like that. The only explanation I can postulate for this is that since they moved to the US some of them married monolingual English-speaking wives and they don't want them to find out what they're really singing about (ie. anal sex) when they go on tour and pack rooms full of hot chicks. Anyway, the rest of the album is pretty much typical Los Amigos Invisibles, although it overall leans more onto the '80s than the '70s sound that was their recognizable trait early in their carrer. I guess this is what works the best for them at this point and what pleases their loyal fan-base the most. So, good for them. Keep on repeating after yourselves.
This one is kind of a mystery to me. Mainly because I'm a huge fan of these guys, I've been playing their music in my mixes consistently since 2008 and I can't wrap my head around the idea that it took them this long to put together a debut album. I mean, how is that even possible? Frikstailers are the most genius visionaries in the whole ZZK collective, they definitely put the best live show of all the label's artists and they have an original marketable image. Plus they crossed over world-wide with that remix they did for Major Laser and its mind blowing video, the best video ever done by any ZZK artist, I might add. Still, while many of those other lesser-known label-mates got preferential treatment and even deluxe vinyl pressings of their music, Frikstailers were only featured in compilations, remixing other people or releasing their music as free MP3s. If it was up to me I would've forced the Córdoba-based duo into the studio and I would've have locked them up in there until they came out with a finished full length album... four years ago! Still, better late than never, right? Frikstailers are still ahead of their time and making music that's unqualifiable and out of this world, so I guess, you could argue that it's never too late to release it. Maybe that's the whole reason why they got their debut postponed for so long, it was too futuristic. I don't know. If you've been following the ZZK releases closely, there're a couple of tracks on this one that you might already have, but the rest is all dope shit that you must acquire no matter what (I only dislike one song, the one featuring Boogat, and I don't understand the insistance of ZZK producers to have him as a guest MC, having so many much better rappers in their own country). Unfortunately at the moment there's no confirmation regarding possible vinyl pressing or I'd be a million times more excited when writing this. Still, I'm pretty stocked to finally see their debut out after expecting it for almost five years. Buy it here.
I used to DJ a lot of gigs for lame-ass audiences of mixed Latinos with no musical education beyond trite classics and current top40 cheesy hits. So I got used to dealing with the most annoying requests and just for fun I'd make up fake rules concerning the music I play and I don't play, just to fuck with these moron's minds a bit. Whenever somebody would come and ask me for some "salsita" or "un merenguito" (and request it like that, in diminutive, which makes it even more annoying) I'd say something like "sorry, I don't play songs that include the word candela in their lyrics." I could've also said something like "I don't play songs with lyrics that rhyme the word bailar with gozar," with the exact same purpose. So it happens that those are words and combinations of words that are extremely abused in salsa and a lot of other Latin-Caribbean music, including reggaetón, and they hurt my Argentine ears. (Now that I think about it I should've also have a rule against songs that rhyme the words amor and dolor, and in one move get rid of half of all songs ever written by Maná).
The thing is, growing up in Argentina I was as detached from salsa as an average midwestern gringo is detached from Cambodian folk. Meaning, I didn't listen to any salsa, I didn't know any salsa, I never danced to any salsa and it never bothered me because nobody else around me cared about salsa either. It was never on the menu. So I didn't actually hate it, it was just completely outside of my musical/cultural spectrum. I only started hating salsa once I moved to the United States and was automatically thrown into the "Latino" segment of the country's demographics and I realized how salsa music and dance were so intimately linked to this group of people I was suddenly associated with. "Oh, you're Latino! You must really know how to salsa, teach me!"
Ew.
First of all, if something hurts my ears more than the word candela is people using salsa (or tango!) as a verb. You dance salsa, you sing salsa, you play salsa, you don't just salsa. Period. But, linguistic aberrations aside, what bothered me the most was that people assumed that because I was a Spanish-speaking immigrant I'd know how to dance to that music that was as foreign to me as it was to them.
Later as a DJ I began hating salsa even more because of the annoying requests and because of how playing salsa would ruin the flow of my DJ sets (as already explained on this other post).
Also because I didn't really know any good salsa.
As a stranger to the culture I had only been exposed to the most horrible side of it, the cheesiest crap ever made under the all-encompassing salsa umbrella. It took me many years and a lot of fight against my inner-demons of Argentine snobbism to reconcile with the idea that some salsa could, potentially, be listenable. Fast forward a few years more and voilà, I'm loving this salsa album, virtually from beginning to end. So I'm glad it reached me now and not five or six years ago when I would've probably dismiss it without giving it one chance.
Puerto Rico's Orquesta El Macabeo describes themselves, in their lyrics, as rockeros who play salsa, and they come to imprint salsa with some long-gone indie cred. They play hard, they have some memorable funky moments, their arrangements are beautiful and their lyrics deal with real, current issues that anybody (or at least me) could relate to, like you know, checking out the big boobs of that 17 year old girl at the supermarket when you're a married man. Best of all, I'm pretty sure I listened to the whole album without hearing the word candela once.
Following the example of other legit current salsa revivalists like Bio-Ritmo, Orquesta El Macabeo releases their music on vinyl. I reviewed their 7'' singles already in the past, now they have an LP, dropping soon on Vampisoul and I beg you to keep and eye open for this one and grab a copy if you see it at the record store. Even if you grew up ignoring and/or hating salsa.
The best US-based vallenato band ever is also the only one I know of. Honestly, as much as I love cumbia, I'm not a big fan of its cousin vallenato so I don't really follow any artist of this genre. Mainly because of the cheesy pop-vallenato that became mainstream in Colombia in the '90s and pretty much ruined it for me. But this LA dudes are nothing like that, so they have all my respect. This guys play vallenato with attitude, an attitude mixed of nostalgia and punk-rock drunkenness and they do it right. Best of all, they've been doing it since way before it was hipster-cool to listen to cumbia or any traditional Colombian music for the matter. And even better, they been pressing it on vinyl since way before it was retro-cool to own a turntable again. How come? Basically because as the band name and the art that comes with their releases might indicate they really don't give a fuck, they just do their thing, their way and don't follow any fads or music trends and it's been historically proven that if you don't give a fuck and you persever long enough, sooner or later, the people that matter will get you and appreciate what you're doing and create a whole cult following around you. That's how Very Be Careful does it and if you wanna join the cult, I suggest you grab a copy of their latest limited edition 7'' release. Plus there's a really dope upbeat dance track there. Buy it here.
I have a little pile of 45s that has been accumulating since the beginning of the year and I haven't found the time to write about them. It's been kinda abnormally busy around here, with too many overlapping new projects and work but I didn't wanna miss the chance to send some shout-outs to al these brave people that keep on trusting in the vinyl single as a viable format to put out music in this day and age. So, here we go, some recent Latin But Cool tracks in seven inches each.
KUMBIA QUEERS vs SCREAM CLUB & ELECTROSEXUAL-Scream Queens At The Cumbia Club (Confort Zone, 2011)
This one came out a while ago, but I didn't find out until way later and I wasn't able to get my hands on it until my recent trip to Argentina. Shout outs to Mercurio Disquería in Palermo, Buenos Aires, for being one of the few places in town that carry current vinyl by local artists. Anyway, this is basically a split record the Queers did with some electro-rapping chicks from Germany, each doing a remix of the other. I personally liked the cumbia remix of the rap song a lot more than the electro remix of the cumbia song, but that's just me. Get yours here.
DOCTOR STEREO-Shake Hand Shake/Joe Says (Resense, 2012)
Another one I brought from my trip to Argentina. This one was given to me personally by the artist himself, Doctor Stereo, also known as Ezequiel Lodeiro, a versatile and multifaceted DJ, producer and remixer based in Buenos Aires who somehow figure out the way to get his tracks pressed on vinyl by some of the most prestigious labels of the Northern Hemisphere. Unlike his previous more latinized tracks this one here is more straight up soulful jazz over frenetic drum-and-bass tempo beats. "Shake Hand Shake" is my favorite, I haven't played it yet in front of a live crowd but I can certainly predict a good reaction. Order it here.
CHRIS READ-Mambo Jazz Del Pito (Breaking Bread, 2012)
Built around a sample of Joe Cuba's classic Boogaloo, "El Pito" this awesome mambo track by Chris Read is a must have. The main version is pretty jazzy and laid back with a hip-hop beat, the flip side gets super dope and highly danceable with a remix by Captain Planet who basically kills it. What a great combo these two guys make, I'd like to see them collaborating more frequently. Buy it here.
LOS CHARLY'S ORCHESTRA-The Latin Edition, Vol. 2 (Imagenes Recordings, 2012)
I downloaded some stuff from these guys a while ago and I wasn't too crazy about it. It was a lot more disco-focused, which mto my ears made them sound like a second rate Los Amigos Invisibles. This one here, however, I love it so much I can't stop listening to it. Some of the funkiest Latin funk ever imaginable, with irresistible up-tempo grooves and mind-blowing breaks, plus minimal vocal intrusions. There's nothing I dislike about this. I really hope they keep on dropping singles exploring this line. Don't miss your chance to get one here.
FRENTE CUMBIERO & GREENWOOD RHYTHM COALITION-Brooklyn a Bogotá (Names You Can Trust, 2012)
This one here is a collectible item. It was done for the recent GRC Colombian tour in a very limite edition and only a handful made it back to the US. To make the offer even more tempting, it comes with a gorgeous hand-made cover. It's basically a split single with the GRC doing their funky thing the way only thy know how on one side and Colombia's Frente Cumbiero getting all weird and shit on the flip side. There're probably a few left at the Names You Can Trust secret stash and I strongly recommend you order yours quickly because they're not gonna be there for too long. There you go.
AILLACARA 2743-Cumbia (Names You Can Trust, 2013)
This one caught me by surprise. I had never heard of the artist, but I know the NYCT guys are way more than two steps ahead of me when it comes to discovering new cool shit emanating from the darkest corners of Latin America. Apparently it's a French dude living in Chile and digging deep into the funkier sound of the folkloric rhythms of the continent's extreme south. Both tracks include the word cumbia in their titles, but this are anything but regular cumbia tracks. There was some chacarera beat on one side that I wasn't expecting at all. Pretty cool stuff. Now purchase link yet, I'll come back and update the post when it goes out on sale.
This one came out a few months ago, in fact I've already wrote about it on Remezcla, but now I finally got it on vinyl and I was so excited I had to post it here too. I've been playing the digital version of "Tropicalifornia" sporadically in my sets and I even think I've played it on my podcast once. It's a pretty cool track with a fucking amazing video, one of the bests of 2012. The b-side, however I had not payed attention to until today and I was instantly enamored by it. It has some really dope Afro-Brazilian upbeat funky beat that will definitely make it into my sets, maybe even more than the track with Quantic, that's a bit more on the laid-back side. Anyway, the reason I didn't get around to buy this gorgeous piece of collectible 10'' vinyl until now was because I was waiting for volume 5 of the series to order them all together. I think Nu-Mark had a really good idea in the way he released and marketed this ambitious project. Instead of releasing the LP first, he took his time to deliver these 10'' singles one by one (each one comes with acapellas and instrumentals) and then when the whole five installments were out he finally delivered it as a whole album. A genius maneuver to please his loyal fan-base of diggers and real vinyl appreciators. And at the same time he gave a lot of the tracks for free as MP3s, for the rest of the non-vinyl-fetishist mortals. I wish more labels were taking this sort of approach (yes, I'm talking to you Nacional Records, who made me buy the latest M.I.S. album imported from Germany because you don't release it in vinyl in the US because it's not profitable, as if somehow Germany had a bigger Mexican music fan-base than your home, California!) Pretty awesome shit, all five volumes are worth getting (they all come pressed in different color high quality vinyl) but this one is probably the best one if you have to pick just one. Get it here.
Empresarios' second full length album came out a couple of months ago and didn't get the exposure it deserved. I'm in part guilty for this, I neglected it and I didn't give it the time to actually listen to the whole thing, from beginning to end, until this past weekend. Now I feel bad because I should've been paying more attention to it. It's a great album, the problem, I think, was that they overwhelmed me (and maybe others out there like me) with so many EPs and remixes during year so, so by the time the album finally came out I just saw the playlist and I was like, "whatever, I already have most of the tracks anyway, why bother?" Now when I finally put the CD on the home stereo the other day and listened to the whole thing, well, it was a different experience and it made more sense than the lose track, here and there, lost in my playlist. It made me appreciate a lot more the wide range of styles these guys have mastered, and incorporated since their splendid debut. I particularly enjoyed the addition of dance-floor-oriented house tracks. The trippy, dubby side, explored on the instrumental tracks has always been delicious, and that didn't change. There was no other "Cumbia" like the one on their debut, the track that made me turn my attention towards them on the first place and there's a bit of reggaetón and other stuff that doesn't really go with my palate but I can tolerate in contained doses. Also, the intro is pretty awesome. Empresarios is mainly a party band, they don't have much of a message, no deep content in their lyrics, they just want you to enjoy some good music with positive vibes and dance so if that's what you're into, you'll love this since the production is top-notch. For me, coming from my underground hip-hop background, sometimes its hard to tune off the lyrics part and focus on the music, and maybe that's why I always prefer their instrumental tracks. Fortunately they have plenty of everything to please a heterodox crowd, from the most eclectic to the mainstream latin urban radio listeners. Unfortunately there was no vinyl release of this one.
As usual, the criteria used to select these songs is purely based on my own experience as DJ, playing these songs at my sets during different parties in 2012 and judging their impact in the crowd after hand-picking them based exclusively my very own personal taste. Needless to say, only dance-oriented music makes it into this list, which is only a small fraction of the wide range of music I listen to on a daily basis. Extra features, like a dope video or the song being available on vinyl always add points to get into this ranking. 1.- Elmayonesa - La
Guaymallenina
I don't understand why isn't everybody else going crazy for this track. It was definitely the biggest surprise from 2012 for me and the track I enjoyed playing the most in my sets. The lyrics, the beat, the synths, the video, there's nothing I dislike about this, except for the fact that it wasn't pressed on vinyl. Plus, it's free! How come I haven't heard any other DJ play this yet?
2.- Los Master Plus - El Gran Vacilón
You'll notice there're a lot of covers in this year's top-11 and that's because I've been playing a lot for a culturally mixed crowd, more leaning towards the mainstream, where familiar tunes with an exotic twist always work the best. Of course, I always rather spin the Latinized covers of said familiar tunes. This one here was the one that worked the best on the dancefloors. Plus, the lyrics are absurd and hilarious and I saw these guys play it live and they killed it.
3.- Alika - Jenjibre
Best video of the year would go for this Uruguayan-born rapper who built her successful solo career in Argentina around reggae and dancehall (and some ñu-cumbia collaborations). Besides the mind-blowing video, everything about this song is on point, her rhymes, her flow, the beat, etc. Excellent.
4.- Danay Suarez & Los Aldeanos - Check La Rima
And here's another cover of a familiar Anglo rap song in a Latinized version, but a lot less ironic. Some of the best Cuban rappers got together for this improvised studio session under the guidance of UK's Gilles Peterson and the result is a delight to all the senses from beginning to end. I said it last year and I still stand by it, Danay Suarez is the best Spanish-language female MC, worldwide.
5.- Campo - Cumbio
The song that gave birth to the whole Campo solo project is also, in my opinion, the best one in the album (but that was a really hard choice, because, like I pointed out on the previous top-11, I love the whole album). The lyrics make little, if any, sense, but the singing style, so British (even though the singer is Uruguayan), somehow perfectly matches the cumbia beat and all of a sudden a whole new genre is born.
6.- Los Transatlánticos - La Receta
Yet another Latinized cover, or semi-cover maybe, this time of a classic dancehall song. The video, however, doesn't live up to the song's incredible dance-floor igniting potential. I played it to all kinds of audiences and everybody loves it.
7.- Los Míticos Del Ritmo - Otro Muerde El Polvo
Of all the songs listed so far, this one is the only one that's available on vinyl, that I know off. Another Latinized cover, this time of Queen's funkiest tune. The rest of the album wasn't bad at all, but every time I grab it, I instinctively go for this track and forget about the rest.
8.- Ana Tijoux - Shock (Captain Planet Remix)
In its original version, "Shock" was a really pretty good song, but it wouldn't make anybody dance. The only chance my friend Ana Tijoux had of entering this top-11 was with a remix and who's a better remixer nowadays than Captain Planet? I mean, this guy has the midas touch. I wish Ana was more open to explore the dance potential of her rapping and doing collaborations with producers like this one.
9.- TheFunk Ark – El Rancho Motel
Nice instrumental soul-cumbia from the funkiest white guys band ever. Produced by Grupo Fantasma's Adrián Quesada, The Funk Ark's latest album is not really Latin But Cool per se, because it's not truly Latin, but it's plenty of cool. I also saw them live doing some kick-ass chicha covers that would be dope if they recorded and released.
10.- Mati Zundel - Señor Montecostez
This one was picked last year for best video and now it enters the best song ranking because the album came out in 2012. The song was also included in the Future Sounds Of Buenos Aires compilation, albeit, with a misspelling on the album back-cover (senior?).
11.- Orion & King Louie - Tin Tin (Peligrosa Remix)
DJ Sabo's boutique label started pressing vinyl again (yay!), and earlier this year they released this moombahton EP comp. As you know I wasn't one to jump onto the buzzed-out Moombah passing fad (a "genre" with the life span of a twitter hashtag), but there're a few tracks I always play on my sets, this one being one of them.
