Hitchhiker's Guide To New World Music (Pt. II)

Artwork by Serge Seidlitz.

I must warn you, this is only the result of a splendid accident. Tengan en mente que lo único que estoy haciendo es compartir la pequeña colección fetichista que llevo armando en mi laptop desde hace varios años por puro cotorreo. I'm just happy there are more people around sharing this same pulse, at least for a while. Whatever it is, it sure tastes good and it feels refreshing. I'm sure you'll be dancing a little from this shit over any of the approaching summers with your closest fellaz, it works best that way, for me, anyway.


REGIÓN 4


Photo by Caesar Sebastian.

Región 4 creates a dialogue between Jamaican dancehall, reggaeton, and the sounds and tendencies of the label’s own artists, who usually group themselves in the realm of minimal dancefloor and IDM. This way, sonorities pertaining to the region 4 (which includes Australia, New Zealand, the pacific islands, central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean islands) flow through the same point to be transformed into a hybrid that not only gives enough to reflect on the technology/culture circuit, but also puts into a manifesto the influences, evolution, and the label’s renovated musical identity. It results paradoxical that arbitrarily generated regional codes created to control the access to digital content, depending on the geographical zone, work in an opposite fashion –at a conceptual level– to produce a new interpretation of the sounds of region 4.

This compilation was released near the end of 2006, and lets be honest, back then nobody was really interested in huffing more weird versions of Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" (well, maybe just Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z). Así que el compilado tuvo un panorama bastante nublado y antipático, pero aquellos que asistimos a sus presentaciones en vivo alrededor de la República Mexicana, nos divertimos como cualquier otro paisano lo haría en su rincón favorito del orbe.

Ahora, la intención de estos posts no es imponer ni proponer una nueva moda tarada, no, al contrario, es un llamado a que cada uno de nosotros construya su propia identidad independientemente de lo que los medios de comunicación estén defendiendo como "la nueva tendencia", al final, esos mismo medios –a causa de su ineficiencia creativa–, no hacen otra cosa más que emular lo que años antes sucedía realmente en las calles, y no en una de las fiestas de Kanye West o Steve Aoki como prefieren decirlo.

This hypothetical approach on "reality" ended up imposing an entirely different and negative (un)reality, that propagated a massive homogenization for over a year. Just look at them party photologs...


Photo by tenglish.

¿Y saben qué? It's all OK, lets take this easy. Desde el 2004 que la gente ya estaba ansiosa por demostrarle al mundo lo mucho o poco que sabía –y quería saber– sobre el mundo. But hey, you wanna know something? Not everybody likes other people to tell them what they already know by themselves perfectly. Meaning... A ningún mexicano nos gusta que nos digan cómo hacer nuestros tacos, mucho menos con un estúpido y denigrante perro Chihuahua.

So, quit telling the world how fashionable the French and witty the British are. We all know this ahead, what we don't (but would love to) know is what the strange guys next door are doing during their private bowls and draughts reunions with their foreign flats. That is all I want to know this year, and that's all I need to know, really. No matter what you haters say. The rest will be televised or transmitted and with a better budget later at some point. So lets relax.

With that said, I don't think there's much more you need to read. May the music speak for itself, after all, it was created with that same intention; this is the sort of music that does not need a pretentious guy like me to execute the original message clearly to its audience. And that's exactly why I love it.

Kampion - Popotla Sound Machine
Plug - Bitskit
Rivel - Ruff Bizzness
Lao - Zooka
Destreza - Like Tigers in the Back Seat of Your Car

You can download the rest of Región 4 at www.filtro.com.mx. It's absolutely free.



A BRAVE NEW WORLD:
REGGAETON, SOCA, KUDURU, MERENGUE & MAMBO

Illustration by Sidney Pink.

This is what happens when you are a globetrotter and instead of carrying a sleeping bag you're secretly keeping a portable studio on your back.

I've personally met some of these people here and there, and all they have to say about their amusing discoveries and creations is shit like "I was just having fun". That was Scott Monteith a.k.a. Deadbeat, by the way. He released Journeyman's Annual on ~Scape last year, although he presented some tracks off this album during his Mutek MX performance almost two years ago, it sure was quite fun. And this next tune is more dub than anything else, but you can percibe the point easily.

Deadbeat – Gimme A Little Dub




On a very similar level, Buenos Aires' Daleduro, flirts a lil' with reggaeton, dubstep and grime, but he also throws a playful wink at a slow-paced soca or even kuduru; you decide, all I know is that this is a truly refreshing track taken out of his El Peligro EP released by a British netlabel, simply called Netlab.

Daleduro - Downtown Pigs



Buraka Som Sistema. Photo randomly Googled.

Now that kuduru came into the conversation, here's a project you should bow down to. Even if you know them already, you should be very aware that their thing is nothing but recently baked music history, buddy.

That's right, this is what happens when you're aware of the existence of riddims like kizomba and zouk, and on top of that you are desperate to do something new for your people to dance to, despite the fact that most of their music is heavily influenced by 90's cheesy dance music and rap.

Buraka Som Sistema básicamente significa "Buraka Sound System", y Buraca es un pequeño distrito situado en una ciudad llamada Amadora, que es donde viven estos chicos y juegan a hacer nueva música dance, justo en uno de los suburbios de Lisboa más cercanos al centro de tal ciudad.

So hold up Mr. Office Boy, don't even dare to rant on whatever it is you're thinking, which probably is how cool you are and everyone else just isn't.... Well, they are, and more than you, anyway.

Buraka Som Sistema - Yah! (feat. Petty) [Vía Get Weird Turn Pro]
Shy Child - Noise Wont Stop (Buraka Som Sistema Remix)
Buraka Som Sistema - Yah! (Cosmic Remix) [Vía Palms Out Sounds]



Stereotyp.

Stefan Mörth a.k.a. Stereotyp is one hell of a guy, an old seawolf too. La mayor parte del tiempo y cuando no está de gira, Stefan vive entre su estudio de Vienna y sus mochilazos por NY, tiene dándole a su proyecto de Stereotyp desde la época dorada de G-Stone Records (¿recuerdas a Kruder & Dorfmeister?), es graffitero, y además, oriundo de la clicka alemana más vigente, donde se codea principalmente con sus paisanos de Al-Haca, pero también con Jahcoozi, Ben Mono, y quizá Modeselektor. También tiene algunas pistas con Edu-K y hasta llegó a salir en discos de la mentada serie de Global Underground, sin embargo hoy en día a su sonido le dicen future soul. Pero que eso no te abrume, porque entre uno y otro largo párrafo de su C.V. también lleva un par de rolas alucinantes publicadas dentro de las selecciones de Carl Craig y Tayo para sus propios Fabric Live respectivamente.

Esta es una de ellas, la más reciente, y aunque está remezclada por Radio Slave, sin duda se trata de full on foot-stomping dynamite:

Stereotyp meets Al-Haca - Blaze N Cook (Radio Slave Remix)

Y esta es una extraída de su EP Jece Valadão / Uepa (Man Recordings, 2006):

Stereotyp - Uepa (feat. Joyce Muniz)

Hablando de Jahcoozi, hace no mucho publicaron su Blitz N Ass Mixtape, en el que presentan algo de su nuevo material mezclado con otras cosas, such fun! Little White Earbuds lo tiene hospedado en su site.



People dancing "perreo". Photograph Flickred randomly.

When I personally met Uwe Schmidt, he was so serious I was shocked, mostly because he was indeed the man behind Señor Coconut and his hundreds of other projects, right there in front of me. Though, I must confess he did fit the image you'd easily get off his Atom Heart and Geez N' Gosh monikers. So I told him how I could not believe he turned out to be so serious, considering his music's so fun.... And then, he said: "If I were like my music, nobody would take it seriously, don't you think?". And that's how he became my hero, well not just then, but after he performed live this sound called "Acidton" along with his partner in crime Vicente Sanfuentes.

But BEFORE THAT, here's another great reason –for a guy like me– to worship him:

That's right... I will never stop thanking him for twisting my favorite riddim of the world: Merengue. American Southern peepz have crunk, the British have Grime, well Latins now have something rather faster than reggaeton and even gabber... TODOS A BAILAR!!!

Los Negritos – Tú no sabe bailar (Versión Rápida)
Los Negritos – Es hora de bailar
Los Negritos – A bailar merengue

...And here's another one of my very own favorites of all times, though it's not any more speed-merengue, sorry. Now that I recall, it was that same Mutek where I met Deadbeat, when I first heard the so-called acidton performed as Surtek Collective by Original Hamster and Uwe Schmidt.

Don Atom - Mueve la cintura (feat. Tea' Time)




Now here's a little buddy who's barely even 20 nowdays. I met him two or more years ago at a Maniquí Lazer gig in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, la ciudad más bonita en cuanto a ambiente (y no arquitectura) de este país, sin duda. A VJ friend of mine called Noba, introduced me to some new kid named Carlos Pesina (a.k.a. pepepe) that day, so we talked about remixing techniques, and so on... The point is, he wasn't even 18 back then and he was already tweaking mexican hardcore punk on his own and now that he has tried his first beers and drugs, well, he's not only working on a geeky 8bit reggaeton sound with a German MC residing in Guadalajara, but he's also part of a whole crew who claim to be "Geekcore", and of course, very, very bored... I can only wonder why, especialmente si vives en GDL and you're nerdy.

Carlos is also into circuit bending, so there's pretty much a lot of shit other kids around the world should be learning from this young guy and his buddies back home. He will be releasing a free EP packed with a bunch of remixes on the Poni Republic netlabel, so stay tuned.

And I aint kidding Y'ALL, this is TOP NOTCH MERCH:

Pepepe - Reggaetron (feat. MC Fuchs)



Diplo. Photo by Caesar Sebastian.

No, I will not talk much about Wesley 'cause eveeeryone knows him already. But he cool, he rad, he true, and I admire him a lot, no shit. Especially that time he played in Marlboro's MX Beat. That was truly mad decent shit, although I was so high (so they say) I still can't remember exactly what he played, but many claim it was wicked cumbia.

However, this is a lovely reggaeton approach on Vice's Black Lips, and they are also so amazing. You know, any band that records one of their shows at a lowlife cantina from Tijuana, gets automatic respect from me immediately. Enough said.

Black Lips – Veni Vedi Veci (Diplo Remix) [Vía Pitchfork]



Plug biting a wild shroom somewhere in Valle de Bravo.

And last, but NEVER EVER LEAST (this is why I decided to write this post after all), here's one track I HIGHLY RECOMMEND to the world, not only because it is so good, but mostly because of the new features it presents within this sound.

First, let's talk about Cristian Cárdenas: he's studying how to program videogames in Vancouver right now, and although he's not even in his mid-20's yet, he's already a damn well respected digital artist, music producer and a graphic designer.

For a while he managed to do all of the above and, in the way, even direct Filtro Netlabel, thus he was the very one responsable for the creation of the Región 4 compilation, however most of the artists featured in that compilation were already playing with reggaeton, soca, dub and dancehall vibes on their own before the record was even thought of.

During that creative period, a bunch of weirdo mexican producers were together throwing strange –but really successful– parties. Most of us were also just dropping at each other houses to work on different sounds just for fun. This is when I had the opportunity to hear the following track by Plug for the first time, and to be honest I was blown away immediately.

Plug - System Boot (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

My god... I really can't get enough of this shit.



AY MERENGUE, PERO QUÉ RICO MAMBO!


Photograph by R.Vieira.

Lets pretend today you woke up as a Latin, consider it like having a bad hair day. Wait that came out rare, OK, no pun intended, this wasn't supposed to be funny. But I can hear you snickering already you xenophobes....

So now, you're Latin, and you just woke up looking like Paz Vega or like a tanned version of Gael García (see? it wasn't that bad, was it?) with round hazel eyes and a lil' hairy gut. It's Saturday and you must gather with your big Latino family or friends at some point, ya tú sabes chico, right?

Ahí estarán los primos, las... "primas", los chiquillos, y por supuesto, todos los viejos, ahí, todos pidiendo diferentes tipos de música a la vez, but you got this new shit, right homie? So, el abuelo José empezará a contar esa historia de todos los weekends, and Aunt Tita hará de las suyas con sus comentarios culeros, pero what the heck man, we're not very different after all... Just a little bit louder and eccentric than the average, worldwide, maybe, I must agree. But don't panic, we're only hispanic...

Anyways, if that's your case or you're just looking for the right chiles to spice up your salsa, carnal, here's some hip and saucy latin ingredients for you to gather successfully with mi gente. And even if you're one of those Gringos who have managed an unheard strategy to date a hot latin woman, it may be time to have the balls to come up with this shit at a latin night out with her friends, and until then, MAYBE, you'll be more likely to be considered as a "el güero cool" and probably even *GASP* GET LAID like a horny stray reggaetonero!:

First, be sure to cut the ingredients by hand, never using electric help. It gives the texture a nice sensual touch and, more importantly, aftertaste...

Calle 13 - Mala suerte con él (feat. Mala Rodríguez)
Aloe Blacc - Bailar... Scene I

Mix well all ingredients in a serving dish, or salsera. Add a little bit of water if needed. Salt to taste...

Tego Calderón - Llorarás (feat. Oscar de León)

You can, of course, make your salsa as hot as you want, by adjusting the amount of BPMs your guests can take. But I encourage you to serve more botanas first, as well as a few shots of something exotic and tipsy too. Once you've done this, your fiesta will be ready to undertake more serious enterprises. Let the main course be served:

Miguelito - Al son del boom (feat. Daddy Yankee)
Alexis & Fido – Tumba El Fronte
Tego Calderon - No era por ahí
Wisin y Yandel - Dime quiénes son


Daddy Yankee & Miguelito.

And if your guests stop laughing about your new musical quest, go ahead and tell them about Miguelito's deal: Oh well ameegous, cut me slack here, he's barely even 7 and he's already got 3 records out, you know!

Everyone will love you, I'll see you thanking me later. And if any of this don't work, you must hit PLAN B!



LATIN CLUB



It all starts sort of like in this video; Latino guy hits The States and does dirty work to sustain his American dreams, and at some point he eventually gets tired and hits da’ club to meet the right "connects". In this case, Lil Jon or "Pequeño Juan", como dice al principio el homie de P.

Pitbull tiene 26 años, es cubano y gana más dinero que todos los que están leyendo este exhaustivo post en este momento, y está fichado por TVT, así que no necesitas saber más, he bling aright man... I'll just let the man speak for himself:

Too Latin for hip-hop/ too hip-hop for Latins/ how did that happen?/No, no, he can’t come to this award show he speaks too much Spanish/ Oh, he can’t come to this award show, he speaks too much English/ Y’all need to make up your mind.

Damn right, here are two of his best latest tracks.

Pitbull - Go Girl (feat. Trina & Young Boss) [Vía Mixtape Maestro]
Pitbull – The Anthem (feat. Lil Jon) [Vía Versus]

If he ain't enough alone for your sorry-blog ass, here are some refixed tracks especially for you hipster:

Pitbull - Bojangles (Tittsworth Remix) [vía Discobelle]
Pitbull - Move Shake Drop (Satisfaction Cover)
Dj Santerosa feat. Pitbull - I Like To Move It (2007 Partybreak Full Mix) [Vía Digital Eargasm]



A RIDDIM CALLED TUKKY



OK, I'm starting to feel really bad about Todosantos appearing all the way down to the end, but they don't really quite fit in other place rather than near the Latin Club bin. But aside that little detail, it was mostly because they released an EP on TTSO's affiliate netlabel Poni Republic (and later on Flamin Hotz) last year, though it has nothing to do with them being sucky or anything even close, because their music is so amazingly creative, fun and most importantly: original.

So because we're absolute enemies of nepotism or anything nearly close to it (it's kind of something very typical among latin people, so we're particularly against it).

Now that you know how we feel, I'll let you know what other people feel about their music instead:

Ever discover a new favorite group on accident? I love when that happens!... Todosantos was one of the most fun and unexpected performances I have ever watched.
- ladecadanse

This beat is kicking my ass! Todosantos makes 'youthful expression' the understatement of the year... Careful with these, it's pretty explosive.
-turntablelab.com

This Todosantos video embodies every ADD-ridden, crotch-grabbing, whistle-blowing, only-sees-neon-color, blog-house neu-raver out there...dubstep, 4?4, speed garage, baile funk, kuduro and ghettotech mixed with Venezuela’s ghetto dance music.’ Wow, i couldn’t have described it better myself. I don’t even know if i would have known where to begin to describe it.
- bigstereo

They're actually dayglo Venezuelan lunatics camping out in Brooklyn. If you stare at this video long enough you'll see a dancing 3D penguin.
- pinglewood.com

Eurocrunk + nu-rave, il fallait le faire.
- fluokids

It's time for them goodies, their ravey tukky shit is REALLY HOT!!!

Todosantos - Acid Boys & Acid Girls
Todosantos - Pao!
Todosantos - OMG! We Got It! (Extended Version) [Vía Bigstereo]
Todosantos - PAO! (Total Xplosion of the Heart rmx by Cardopusher) [Vía Earwigs & Wax]


And that's all folks. I hope you enjoyed the ride just as much as I did, but I must confess I'm too beat to work on El Pasito Duranguense and Urban Bachata, ever, even; they both suck anyway.

Thank you all for your support!