2 weeks ago I was mixing some cumbia at the party for the album release of my friends psychotropical orchestra here in Montréal and I was talking with the lead of the group who’s from Mexico. We had an interesting discussion about cumbia and sonideros.

He told me about la peregrinacion (pilgrimage) sonidera were all the sonideros across america converge to the church on one day for a special mass and party. Just like almost any peregrinacion in the mexican culture, La virgen de guadalupe is the center of the day and if you have the chance to participate, the best place to follow la pergrinacion is in la Basílica de Guadalupe in Mexico DF. There’s one in couple of city in the us also (I.E. Los Angeles). Anything that can protect the sonideros for the year to come is a good thing!

Here a good video from the famous mexican Grupo Kual where you can see what happening.

I harbor a soft spot for out-of-tune Andean love song cumbias (this is a huge category).

All I know about this one is its useless file name – 9990013.MP3 – from a GREAT Tepitos mp3 cd-r.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

slightly out-of-tune cumbia andina

+ + +

I admit another soft spot for cumbias about drink or drugs, slow dissolution. Social realism, if you will.

here’s Alfredo Gutierrez, singing — and yodeling! Drunk thematics: psychiatry, sick love, liver sadness. “Losing myself in liquor brought me to the dark side.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Alfredo Gutierrez – La 2nda del Diaro de un Borracho / Guayabo Eterno

and finally, mislabeled youtube animation set to Alfredo Gutierrez’ El Diario de un Borracho:

Ok! I’m back in Montreal after a great trip in Newfoundland! Today just getting back in the subject with a nice post from SdC who write on the french blog Le gouter du mercredi (Wednesday snack) (Yes I speak french!) that have tried to summarize in 10 tracks what is the neo or nueva cumbia after Toy Selectah talk!

For my part, I’m happy to share a new remix that my friend Toty in Buenos Aires sent to me last week witch is a Tego Calderon reggaeton cumbia mashup with campanero track!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

El Campaton – DJ TOTY

If you want to find more track from Toty, I’ve already posted somes  on Masala.

“You can call it neo-cumbia or mash-up, but from my point of view it’s all hip-hop.”

insightful, killer interview with Toy Selectah over at Remezcla. At some point we’ll both be in NYC at the same time and an epic radio show appearance will result, but until then -

excerpt

Remezcla: How did the whole neo-cumbia phenomenon start?
Toy Selectah: Híjole güey, it was very spontaneous. We all started getting deep into MySpace. I think it’s still barely starting. Definitely that vinyl release we made with Sistema Local when Chico Sonido moved to Los Angeles was a stepping-stone for the whole movement, it had the first cumbia mash-ups like the one with Missy Elliot and the “Milkshake” song.

RE: That was in 2005, right?
TS: Yes, around 2004 or 2005. It was then when Sonido Martínez (from Argentina) showed up online and right after that, all the rest started to come out.

RE: I think that neo-cumbia happens because of this new Latin American generation that grew up surrounded with cumbia as the dominant lower-class dance music but they see it from a hip-hop perspective. The whole concept of music recycling; this is something that couldn’t have happened 15 years earlier.
TS: Exactly. This is the hip-hop creativity but it’s not happening only with cumbia, it’s happening with all other modern music styles, rock, pop, electronica… You can call it neo-cumbia or mash-up, but from my point of view it’s all hip-hop.

RE: Another distinctive characteristic of this movement is that it mostly developed online, thanks to MySpace, some blogs and free MP3s. There are almost no official releases available.
TS: That’s why I say that this is barely starting and I think it’s gonna be huge! Every time I release a new remix, there are 160 DJs I know that if I send them the track, they will be playing it the next day.

RE: But people hear that at the club and they want to buy the song and it’s not available anywhere.
TS: Right! So they have to come back next week to the gig to listen to it again. That’s how the whole reggaetón thing started with DJ Playero before the record labels got interested in. Now Sonidero Nacional will be releasing a compilation of remixes through Universal.

Hell’s Kitchen flea market vs. Sonido Martines vs. Los Destellos vs. Fefe vs. compression artefacts. Todos ganamos. [via]

cumbia romantica para políticos nulos (gracias miss pirata!)

& the original in case you don’t recognize the magic touch of Angeles Azules: