If I thought something was poppin in the state of Denmark, I have no idea que pasa en Argentina.
The ol’ blogosphere radar has been registering lots of blips from that southmost outpost in South America. I mentioned the Frikstailers a little while back, for instance. And of course, there’s the whole cumbia rebajada movimiento, which seems to have strong routes thru Buenos Aires.
Recently I’ve been digging (into) lots of “local” mashups from that neck of the woods. & I like how a lot of them depart from the tried-and-true calculus of recognizable-acapella + recognizable-instrumental, even if that gets them closer to sounding like “remixes” than “mashups” for most of us. (We need not split hairs on that count, at least not again.) Instead, these Argentinian mashaperos weld (relatively) familiar acapellas to backings by some fine up-and-coming Argentinian beatsmiths. Pretty soon every city will be doing this (we hope). Currently, Córdoba is representin. Buenos Aires también.
To wit: check out Villa Diamante’s mash of Calle 13 and the Frikstailers (two of my LatinAm faves!) over at MuyBastard. As he puts it, “como buen mashapero,” Diamante goes a little further with this mix, adding his own touches to the ol’ A + B formula —
Villa Diamante – Frikstailers vs Calle 13
[audio:http://www.diamantestyle.com.ar/mp/VillaDiamante-FrikstailersvsCalle13.mp3]
…
Notably, MuyBastard also points us to a nice’n’noisy remix of Calle 13’s “Cumbia de los Aburridos” over at Sonidero Nacional’s space.
I say notably because that’s the same Calle 13 track I’ve been screwing with myself of late. So allow me to close this post by getting in on the sharing: here’s a screwed’n’chopped’n’dubbed versión I’ve been improvising in some recent rebajada sets I’ve been working on —
wayne&wax, “Cumbia de las Rebajadas”
[audio:http://wayneandwax.com/music/ww_cumbia-de-las-rebajadas.mp3]
I’ve been enjoying the mashaperos of Buenos Aires recently too. Oro 11 has some cool mixes.
Cumbia de las Rebajadas is very nice
hey wayne,
i know we never officially met, but i’m a friend of jake and tony’s from boston and have djed beat research a few times. currently i’m living in buenos aires and preparing a giant multi-genre mix which will have a bunch of artists from BA on it… this city does have a great scene, here are some more artists i would recommend:
oro11 – as mentioned above, he is making some of the most forward-thinking cumbia-influenced beats and mashups out there, even though he’s american
tremor – glitchy electronica mixed with folklore
el remolon – kind of hypnotic cumbia slowed-down house.
el hijo de la cumbia – best straight-up cumbia producer we’ve got. his stuff KILLS live.
and for some classic cumbia villera check out pibes chorros and damas gratis. some of the keyboard sounds these bands have are completely insane.
that’s good to get you started, and i look forward to finally meeting you in late november when i play beat research again… i plan on doing an exclusively argentine set, so it should be fun! definitely shoot me an email if you wish…
un abrazo, y saludos a tony
dave
Thanks for the tips, Dave! I’ve run across a lot of the artists you mention in my myspace travels, and since I didn’t have the time to do a more comprehensive post, I’m grateful that you give them a shout here. (And I appreciate your descriptions, too.)
Can’t wait to hear your Beat Research set in late Nov! Sounds fantástico! & do let me know if you mix your “giant multi-genre set” down to something mp3able —
for sure, i should have an mp3 in the next week or so.
what to expect:
cumbia, dancehall, thug-rave, a little arabic music, 80s pop, baile funk, b-more, french-style electro, grime, dubstep, hyphy, Rammstein, and Elvis.
bam! haha
Villa Diamante writes (via email):
Villa Diamante say: : )
“exercise of taste”
that’s it! that’s what life should be all about, all the time..
thx, raffa. i like the idea of constantly “exercising” our tastes, esp if it refers less to imposing them on others (if implicitly) and more to stretching and working our own sense of what’s good & why —