Buenos Aires Implodes

Alika y Nueva Alianza - Para Bailar Cumbia (El Hijo de la Cumbia remix)
Los Destellos - Elsa (Sonido Martines remix feat. Fefe)

From Nueva Cumbia Argentina 2009

Brand new Soot release! Sonido Martines compiled the essential overview of what's happening down in Argentina, mixing the likes of ZZK residents with old Peruvian refixes and Buenos Aires boy band Damas Gratis. A lot of this stuff is scattered throughout both other outlets and the internet, and having all of it in one place is wonderful. Martines' paean to Los Destellos (who you know from the Roots of Chicha) adds bigger drums and Brazilian MC Fefe to the squealing guitars, retaining the original psychedelia only found in the bottom half of the world. El Hijo de la Cumbia's remix of Para Bailar has that bootleg keyboard sound engineered by the likes of a long-time Sonidero engineer, shrunk to fit a size Reggaeton. There's a little bit of everything for fans of Cumbia here, as long as your into the "lo-fi, high-tech" sound of Villera keyboards.

You can get the CD/LP now at places that sell those types of things.

Andean Digital Folklore

DOWNLOAD

RIP Mercedes Sosa

1935-2009

Whips and Thangs

La Yegros - Trocitos De Madera 2009

If my job was to keep readers up on the new when it's actually new, I would fail. And by that I mean "internet new", so 12 seconds after the recording is made. Fresh material is always fun, but people really need to slow down. That said I have been so psyched on this song and I don't feel lame for being the last one to talk about it. King Coya's computerized dub gets down on all fours and the poor thing is whipped by a Cumbia slave driver. Really, whip cracks are the new gun shots, Argentina's 2009 answer to last years cicada sounds. Less in the ZZK vein of electronics, more in the vein of bodega bootleg MIDI but with war drums. "Professional" villera production with a dark tale about the pleasures of shuffling thighs to complement it. As sonically interesting as it is a main ingredient for sore feet. What I'm trying to say is, the best kind of music.

Good Press Lately

Few articles I've enjoyed in the past week...

XLR8R ran an article in the latest issue on ZZK records in which they are taken on a journey by everyones favorite Avant-Cumbia hooligans to the crews favorite haunts in Buenos Aires. Really makes me ask myself, what the fuck am I doing in this frozen shithole known as Chicago?


Said Magazine also ran an article I missed back in April on everyone's favorite Midwestern goth kids "Yes We Really Do Smoke Crack" Salem. Highlights from the article/interview:

*John: In a lot of white trash towns where we’re from kids are into that for some reason. They like to torture animals and cut themselves and bleed into cups and worship the devil. That’s everywhere. In small meth towns that’s really big. The Midwest has that on lock.

*“There is this song called ‘Haffa’ that I made when I was really, really high on OxyContin,” says 20-year-old Jack Donoghue, the main beat-maker of the triad. “I don’t think I would have been able to make it sound like that if I wasn’t.”

*Donoghue tells me straight-up that the last band fight was about member John Holland smoking crack in the bedroom (he’s supposed to hit the pipe and blow out the bathroom window), and all agree that the only drug they don’t really like is weed.

The New Fader is also full of some good stuff, Including Rupture's article on Dominican Mambo star Omega and Cheif Boima's article on "proto-Jerk" youngin's D-Lo and Sleepy D.

Killing Yourself to Cumbia

There is room for everyone in the Cumbia game, including metalheads and lesbians.

ZZK Tour 2009

If your in Chicago and don't come out to Sonotheque for this, I'm not your friend anymore. Same goes for Portland and everywhere else for that matter.

DON'T BE A FOOL, GET YOUR CUMBIA FIX COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU!

Some Notable Mixes

Taliesin - Virtual Light 2008

An old one I missed from last summer. NYC native now ex-pat in Budapest somehow gets away with having Merce Cunningham introduce Bone Crusher in his homage to the low end. A short but sweet collection of left field bangers with the politics toned down a notch from his election week Apricity Mix, but with the signature Taliesin painterly like Basshead collage steeze. I've scratched my head so much its started to hurt.


Douster - ZZK Mixtape vol 6 2009

The sixth in ZZK Records' wonderful(and free!) series of mixtapes, this time around from Frenchman now in Argentina Douster. Starts things off with a Cumbia lazer bass version of Clipse's Zen and keeps consistant with the Club Zizek sound. I even like the nintendoness of his own remixes. Be sure to catch this guy in your city on the ZZK North American Tour that starts next friday.


DJ Fantasma (of NGUZUNGUZU) - Chicago House Mix 2009

My favorite Ghetto Acid Club DJs passed this mix of West side record digging my way that has provided me with some good times during rush hour on the EL Train. Fantasma rummaged through the likes of Barney's Records and Tapes to create this wonderful overview of forgotten warehouse joints from the Percolator era. Pioneers of left field club music, these guys graduated with a MFA in Ghetto House.

ZZK Crazy Art

Scary. The dude that does art for these guys is awesome.

Grupo Crap & Shit

Grupo Nectar - Corazoncito (from I don't know what album or year but it was a hit song once)

Another silly vandalized Wikipedia entry for a band whos story isn't so amusing. Grupo Nectar were a Peruana/Andean style Cumbia group who formed in Buenos Aires in 1994 that would reach great popularity before all being killed in a bus accident while on the way to a show in 2007. A great shame that made many Peruvians quite upset. This is very sugary Cumbia, especially this song which is listed as one of their most successful singles that I've even heard at a bar in Chicago. Oddly, my mp3 is marked as being from the Roots of Chicha collection, and while it is Chicha or maybe Neo-Chicha(?), it's a few years too late to be a part of that compilation.

Rest in Peace Grupo Nectar

Psyched

Coming soon!

When I Die, I Want You to Play Cumbia

I have never read Cristian Alarcón's book as my Spanish isn't good enough but man do I plan on trying when it is. Fortunately I found the Bmore to BA blog, an Argentinan's journey to find his biological father, which touches up on Cristian's book and gives a more in depth look at the Villa Miserias (Misery Towns) of Buenos Aires, home to many Uruguayan and Paraguayan immigrants, as well as many Cumbia Villera bands such as Damas Gratis (Girls for Free), and Los Pibes Chorros (The Robbing Kids). Descriptions of the various scene kids of Argentina, fashion, soccer, and violence play a large part of the article, which was written almost 3 years ago. Unfortunately it doesn't look like this blog has been updated in a while, but luckily it's still up for all of us to read.

Insect Circus Cumbia

Dick el Demasiado - Mosquito de Cumbia (from ? 200?)

This is a case where Byron Coley's over the top similes would actually be useful rather than just weird music dork ramblings. "A swarm of mosquitos bombarding you on a merry-go-round full of Colombian accordion players after your tripping partners thought you'd be more comfortable at a circus when the acid went bad" or something like that. Truly one of the more wacked out cumbia songs in existence, not to outshine the fireworks cumbia or Demasiado's other track where he samples pigs. Still on the search for where this is from, as this is the result of downloading random files with cumbia in the title on soulseek.

Chancha via Circuito - Rodante

Chancha via Circuito - "Cumbia Murguera" (from Rodante 2008)

If there was one person responsible for my buying into the cumbia hype this year, I would hold Pedro down in Buenos Aires responsible. Right as my obsession with the slow stomp was really taking off, the ZZK guys came to Portland and played a show to pretty much just me and anyone I dragged to Berbati's Pan. Even with nobody out on the dancefloor when I arrived, mr Chancha via Circuito was out there cutting up a rug by himself. When his own song (and probably the track I listened to the most in 2008) "Cumbia Murguera" came on, the venue didn't seem as empty. There were only about ten people moving their feet, one of them being me and the other was the man himself. We were both equally psyched on it, and while my rusty spanish didn't help out our conversation, he was cool enough to give me some CDs. His name has something to do with a train, and the music is a steam engine fueled by peoyte. While this album would be considered a cumbia record, the range of sounds and influences go much farther than South America. This only makes sense as the origins of cumbia themselves are rooted in three different continents. While still retaining the slow clave rhythms, some tracks act as a dancehall riddim while others remind of the Muslim rule of the Iberian Peninsula. The album reads naratively without sacrificing any elements of ass shaking commonly found in villera band Damas Gratis but without the long mullets. The weed leaf painted synths are definitely still here however, and this album along with The Fauna and El Remolon records continues the ZZK tradition of being sequenced to play like a psychedelic experience. One of my very favorite records of the year that makes me excited to hear what comes out of Buenos Aires next. The album can be grabbed here along with a bunch of awesome free mixtapes.

ZZK Mixtape Vol. 5 - Tremor

Once again another cool mix from Buenos Aires' ZZK Records. This one is a good mix of remixes and mashups from the ZZK camp, much of which consists South American folk joints. Only problem with this one is it starts off with that lame new M.I.A. song "Boyz". Almost turned it off but luckily it gets good quick and the Q-Tip mashup later on makes up for it. Like the others you can download this one for free here. Much love to you all down in Argentina and props on the artwork for these.