Sonido Martines is busy dragging 80kilos of his life across Latin America (via bus), and Benoit has escaped the grid somewhere gorgeous in Newfoundland or somesuch, so I’m holding down La Congona single-handed.

First up, a breezy mix by Novalima, who are playing NYC’s Le Pouisson Rouge (w/ support from Geko Jones) on July 16th.

This one kicks it with new versions of chicha classics by Juaneco “ya se ha muerto mi abuelo”, Los Mirlos, etc. and afro-peruvian grooves, tasteful clubby edits holding it all together.

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Novalima – Selector v1 mix

they say:

1.- “La danza de los Mirlos (novalima remix)”*unreleased. Los Mirlos traditional 70′s cumbia reversion by Bareto, cumbia revival band from lima, remixed by novalima)
2.- “Macaco (novalima remix)”*unreleased – Batata y su Son Palenquero , one of the greatest afro colombian artists, our friend Lucas Silva “Champeta Man” gave us the tracks of this great trad song to remix)
3.- “El abuelo (novalima remix) – Bareto” *unreleased. Made popular by Juaneco y su Combo in the 70′s, another cumbia reversion by Bareto remixed by novalima
4.- “Tumbala” (da lata remix) this is a great afrobeat-brazilian remix by chris frank whom we’ve known since the “afro” sessions in london back in 2004, with additional vocals by da lata’s nina miranda. This track digs out cotito’s “lost verse” from tumbala which somehow didnt make it into the original version in the album
5.- “el niche” sabor y control. Our favorite peruvian salsa dura band, led by bruno majer (who sings mujer ajena in coba coba) and constantino, novalima’s timbales player
6.- “bandolero (kv5 remix)” great remix in a jamaican stylee by marc lee from london based kv5. Previously unreleased
7.- bomba (coba soundsystem) this track was the last track we finished before releasing coba coba, coba soundsystem is a.k.a. novalima dj’s rpp,rm,gs. Bomba plena an electro latin dancefloor groove
8.- tumbala (oreja remix) seiji’s house rework for tumbala.

[yo pido el taxi, from Arghon's creative commons flickr]

4 cumbia quickies from Tepito, bad metadata and all:

Venezolana querida vamanos pa rinconcitos. Also, it sounds like he’s addressing Robert, asking for a squeeze!

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Aprietame (Tocame el piano Robert@)

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y algo de tribal cumbiambero. by Mexican tribal standards, this track has sky-high production values and intensive editing work. Most tribal embraces extreme repetition, brutal druggy minimalism made with Acid music software:

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Son de Cumbia

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last but not least, mighty Grupo Kachimba from D.F. “La grandeza de ser pequeno”! negra negra negra Pa’rriba la Cong(on)a!

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Grupo Kachimba – Con La Cong(on)a Pa Arroya

El Hijo de la Cumbia, playing in front of… 15,000? 20,000? mas?! … a whole lotta people in Zocalo, Mexico City.

next stop Europe.

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Poncho Kingz – Space Cumbia (Sonidero Nacional remix)

remix produced by Toy Selectah, our broder en Monterrey, who’s hitting Manhattan tomorrow inna sonidero-raverton style. Listen to my radio show tonite (7pm EST) for ticket giveaways!