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.
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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.”
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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!
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“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.
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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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.
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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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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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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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!
Hace tiempo queria subir una seleccion de ripeos de instrumentales de artistas que inspiraron a toda una generacion de tecladistas cumbieros en el continente:
Tulio Enrique Leon, de venezuela, el organista no vidente que supo girar por toda sudamerica con sus composiciones:
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Cumbia Algarrobera – Tulio Enrique Leon
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El chin chin – Tulio Enrique Leon
El boliviano Guillermo Butikofer, quien interpretaba ritmos folkloricos y tropicales por igual
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Guanaquito – Guillermo Butikofer
y de colombia otros dos grandes teclistas:
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Cumbia Sabrosa – Alejando Bernal organo y ritmos
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les presentamos este nuevo blog en el q nos encargaremos de difundir todo lo q podamos sobre nuestro gran pais pantropical llamado cumbia. a bilingual blog dedicated to our great pantropical country: cumbia!
