ZZK Records have just published the results of the Fauna Remix competition from a few months back. The tracks chosen are a mixed bag of remixes and cut ups from of the five tracks from La Manita de Fauna album by a group of relatively unknown artists.
Go check out the site and download the 10 remixes chosen by members of the ZZK crew. It introduces a whole host of new artists to get into; a whole afternoon's worth of Myspacing!
I am a fan of the Lagartijeando sea-shanty-cumbia remix of Las Mil Caras:
While looking into the background of the various CDs and new genres I have aquired, I discovered a really great resource for Latin American music, or more specifically Andean music. Pacoweb is a site full of info on artists, discs, styles, dances and instruments (in Spanish). Check out the Ritmos Sud Americanos part which lists and explains the hundred of rhythms and variations of the numerous styles. It lists around 49 variations of Huayno!!!
This Friday (26th June) sees the return of La Peña Electrica, it is like a peña (a traditional place to go and see Argentine folkloric music) but not so traditional. On the line up are aforementioned Imperio Diablo with dancers from the Ballet Amerindia and Gaby Kerpel (King Coya) as Gaby Kerpel (who I interviewed today, should appear on FlyGlobal but I will post some things on here once it is written up and shiny.)
Performing alongside them are Semilla, Yicos, Los Hermanos Nuñez c/Ruiz Guinazu, Laura Peralta and Chakatap. Lots of new names to me. It should be a varied mix of ace live music, dance and visuals. The event kicks off at 21:00 in Club Niceto (Niceto Vega 5510) and costs $20pesos.
Bombo legüero y distorsión; loops y bagualas; zaphiphopeo y chacapogo; psicodelia y carnavalitos; sonido de raiz y asfalto bajo las suelas. Tribus criollas y urbanas en espacio experimental, festivo y telúrico. Origen y futuro de una identidad en transformación.
Diego Bulacio aka. Villa Diamante from Villa Diamante (a barrio of Lanus, Bs As) is set to release Empacho Digital on the 24th of June via ZZK Records. It is a mega compilation of more than 40 mash-ups and mixes available for free download from the 24th: Diamante Style and ZZK.
Disc one pairs some of ZZK's most known artists with anyone and everyone, e.g. Chancha Via Circuito vs Nelly and Intoxicados made cumbia! Disc two is a dubstep crossover inspired by Daleduro, one of the few dubstep producers/DJs in Bs As, and unites big tunes from big name dubstep producers with latin american artists. (Benga's anthemic Night meets Juana Molina?!) The third and final disc is a tribute to Rock Nacional Argentino in a way you have never heard before. Bound to offend Rock Nacional purists and down the line hip-hop heads alike for it's wonderfuly unimagineable pairings: (Abuelos de la Nada vs O.D.B. Charly Garcia vs Busta Rhymes!?)
This really is an "anything goes" affair, original in it's concept and execution. Empacho Digital is a statement on the mash-up culture, as Diego says on his site, the disc has "the intention of reflecting the excess of information that the internet era has brought about, it is no longer a privilege but rather a nuisance. We are in the age of hyper-communication and the possibility of having everything at the touch of a button."
Here is a little interview (in Spanish) with Villa Diamante, though it was filmed a while back you can see where he is coming from:
Headed to Le Bar in the micro-centro last night for a mojito tranquilo and was delighted to discoverDoña María playing live. First I had heard of them but really enjoyed the show and the reaction of the audience was great. Mucha onda!
They have vocalists, a chap on turntables, double bass, percussion and guitar. A real mix of styles from Argentine folk to cumbia, electronica and beyond! A quick song and video here (pretty different styles):
After heading down to ZZK's weekly extravaganza last night I grabbed a copy of their latest compilation album; ZZK Sound Vol.2. I am currently giving it the first listen and have to say I am impressed, the sound is progressing, it is not just stuck on Cumbia with electronic beats. There are of course some great sounding electronic cumbia tracks such as Uproot Andy's Brooklyn Cumbia but it is far more diverse. Another snapshot of what is going on in the southern hemisphere.
The styles are all over the shop and a fine and intriguing shop, bit like an antique shop: full of stuff. There are tracks which passed me by and then there are tracks which grabbed me and said: LISTEN!!! Which is obvious given it's size (19 tracks - value for money or what!) Give it a listen on ZZK's webiste where you can download individual tracks. I also snapped up the previously mentioned Chancha Via Circuito album, also recommendedededed!
I have picked two examples here for your listening pleasure but there is MORE, much more. You can buy the album (MP3) from ZZK themselves here: ZZK Volume II and apparently Amazon (they are going up in the world!) Though it says 23rd June is the release date? Hmmm. Watch this space, or ZZKs.
I just picked up the latest copy of Los Inrockuptibles, the best mainstream music magazine I have found in Argentina (feel free to enlighten me.) Inside there is an article all about the tropical electronica scene, of course concentrating on the ZZK crew, a good introduction to the scene covering all the bases. Anyway, on the second page they list the artists which are making the scene what it is today (shining in it's own light...) here it is:
A couple are new to me, worth checking them out, especially Chancha Via Circuito whose album Rodante is packed full of exciting music for trains and nightclubs.
I am stumped by this guy. I just don't get it but he is entertaining. The man is one of the following: a) some kind of underground, electronica artist exploring and experimenting with new directions. b) a flogger (still not sure what this flogger thing is all about...) taking himself way too seriously or c) a joke. Decide for yourself. Wikipedia comes to the rescue!
"La versión actual de este artículo o sección parece estar escrita a modo de publicidad."
Or not...I think that roughly translates as: he wrote his own wikipedia entry. So the artist known as Mäuss has 1 official website, 2 fotologs, a wikipedia entry and 6 myspaces! Man alive! The most prolific underground artist in Argentina?
He is the DJ. (Are these what you call floggers?)
El Beso
Finally I leave with a quote, a gem of 8-bit cumbia and Charlie Parker meets a drum machine:
Está inmerso en otro proyecto de experimentación con la música tropical, la electrónica y el minimal, bajo un proyecto de teknotrónika, al que denominó como Mäuss Y la sonora 8 bits. (Like Skwee meets cumbia on a mobile phone.) Integra paralelamente un trío de electronic jazz junto al flautista & saxofonista Martín Barcos y el bajista Santiago Olivera (dos de los músicos de jazz más talentosos de la Mesopotamia), con quienes hace versiones de Charlie Parker.
Having said BA was surprisngly short of independent labels I today discovered a really excellent label who seem to want to change all that. Mamushka Dogs (great name) is a label run by Luciano Banchero and Leandro Pereiro which offers new fresh independent music from alternative Argentine groups and producers. The best thing is that they are offering all of their catalogue for free download! I guess it is an attempt to get people listening and to help bands get their music out there.
Get on it! A couple of my reccomendations: The Peronists and Go Neko! but plenty of fresh varied stuff on there and freeee!
The fact I am posting this probably means I have too much time on my hands and am spending too much of that time staring at my laptop. The inspiration for this post is the twenty or so firefox tabs of blogs, myspaces, downloads, mixes and pure gold I have found on a recent trawl through the google ocean! After having lived in BA for five months and travelled a little in Latin America, (Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia..) I have become submerged in cumbia (more like it drowned in it; ch-ch-ch, ch-ch-ch!) Latin America's unifying soundtrack, a rhythm which came from Africa, travelled to Colombia and now floats in streets from Lima to Mexico City.
What has stoked my interest is the particular evolution of the sound in Buenos Aires. Before 2000 Argentine Cumbia was associated with a placid Romantic style. However, after 2001's economic crisis, a sub-genre appeared under the umbrella of Cumbia Villera (cumbia from the villas; the poorest areas of the city). Though criticised by many as a style which glorified drugs, violence and crime and held in contempt by the upper classes, it was a social phenomenon which grew directly out of the crisis, felt hardest by the poorest. The music is an expression of life in BA's slums much as Baile Funk was in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Damas Gratis, pioneers of Villera sound.
Eight years on a new wave of artists influenced by Cumbia Villera and brought together by ZZK Records are experimenting with the sound and pushing it in a thousand directions: think cumbia remixes of Animal Collective, Clipse, minimal cumbia or even cumbia vs Peruvian Huayno! They are taking the rhythms of the street and making them global, bassy and funky. They also have awesome flyer designs:
Courtesy of the world-wide-web and the ease of travelling, mutant cumbia is escaping the continent and taking the underground, dance hungry world by storm. Helped by artists with world-wide appeal and "nuff-respect", (super-star-ghetto-bass crew: Diplo, D/J Rupture, Uproot Andy, Radioclit etc) the tracks are reaching ears in New York, Montreal, Norway and even London. ZZK are currently touring the US for the second time and set to play at this summers Coachella.
What you have to remember and what Grant Dull, the co-founder of ZZK explained is that independent record labels and distribution is near non-existent in Latin America, when compared to a city such as London or NY, for it's size BA is surprisingly musically homogeneous. Therefore the growth of the scene has been dependent on the Internet, networking, blogging, myspace, mashups and mixtapes. Luckily for them and us, the net-underground has latched onto it. I am latching on to them and adding my line to the web.
Here's how you get into it:
@ ZZK Records download their free mixtapes, scour the site for free MP3s, mashups etc, find something you like: buy it!
@ There is a world of music blogs which keep their fingers on the global pulse and have MP3s, mixes etc:
Look out for some updates, posts and new music on this blog! A mix is in the mix after the recent mix I did mixing up deepstep and techno (Download here!)
This blog was set up in Argentina after discovering a world of music and the wonders the internet can offer. It is run by myself, part time student, music lover and hispanophile.
Please get in touch if you anything to say or would like music which appears here to be removed: rjperkins1@gmail.com
