In partnership with the Afro-Latino Festival of New York, this month’s Que Bajo features one of the most important Colombian acts of all time, Los Gaiteros De San Jacinto. (more…)
Blog (2008-2018)
The key figures in Colombia’s Picó sound system culture
Keeping on today’s Colombia theme… The sound system, or Picó culture of the Caribbean coast of Colombia is very close to my heart. Not only is there a strong relationship between it and the popular music of 1970’s and 80’s West and Central Africa, but the propensity towards innovation via digital production (something that I’m near obsessed with as a DJ) is very strong in this part of the world as well. (more…)
Inside the Dutty Pool: Cali Flow Latino
For this month’s Dutty Pool, I wanted to include a piece of one of my favorite homegrown Colombian sounds that’s currently omnipresent on the radio stations and club systems, at least in Bogotá where I was living earlier this year. (more…)
Chief Boima’s “Six Over Eight” Post-Tour Mix + Recap
Usually people put out a mix before their tour to promote upcoming shows… Well, I’m putting one out after — many excuses as to why — most importantly because I wanted to share a part of my set that got some interesting reactions from crowds this past month touring the U.S. (more…)
Geko Jones and Atropolis present: Palenque Records Remixed – Out Now!
Que Bajo Hosts the Palenque Records Remixed Release Party
Geko Jones and Atropolis present: Palenque Records Remixed
[youtube]http://youtu.be/Yi5eJoYSlZ8[/youtube]
Geko Jones’ Afro-Latin Club Mix for Société Perrier
Geko Jones turns in a wicked mix for Societe Perrier, showcasing his unique take on Latin American, Caribbean, and electronic club music. On it, you get a blended combination of remixed Afro-Colombian folk styles that he’s known for, alongside Samba, Kuduro, Nigerian Pop, Dominican Tipico, Salsa, Dembow, Reggaeton and even Chicago Juke filtered through a UK Bass lens. You can almost imagine this as the part 2, or response from the American side of the ocean to the Africa Latina mix that he and I did last month.
BomBeat @ LPR Nov. 24th
[youtube width=”525″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESj164wKc6I[/youtube]
Super excited about this new event, BomBeat, that I am launching with my crew Cumba Mela, and Nickodemus from Turntables on the Hudson. Its all going down this Saturday, November 24th at Le Poisson Rouge, in Manhattan. Expect to hear a wide range of global bass music: cumbia, dancehall, kuduro, house, moombahton, reggaeton….
We have Jeremy Sole coming from LA, repping KCRW, TheLift, and Afro Funke.
We are going to try our best to get a free EP for ever event. Be sure to check out the first one bellow!
Poirier and Lido Pimienta at iBomba Tonight! (Monday- 10/8)
We keep it fresh at iBomba and tonight we’re bringing you some guests up from Canada to get you winding. Don’t miss our guest DJ tonight from Montreal, Poirier! AND added bonus, Colombian-Toronto darling, Lido Pimienta will be doing a set, so if you missed her at Que Bajo?! last week, this is your second chance.
More on our guests:
Ghislain Poirier has become recognized as one of the world’s leading tropical bass DJs, using electro, hip-hop, soca, U.K. funky, and dancehall beats along with vocalists and rappers comfortable with his mesh of those genres. You can download his new Kidnap Riddim for free here.
Lido Pimienta, a visual artist and musician from Toronto reppin’ hard for Colombia jumps back and forth from electronic music to afro colombian music with ease. I watched her skillfully blend folkoric Colombian music with electronica at her performance at Que Bajo?! last Thursday, with lyrics steeped in political undertones. A must see.
We welcome both of them to the iBomba family to join myself (DJ Ushka) and DJ Beto keep the vibe right all night.
When: Monday, October 8th; 10pm – 4am
Where: Bembe, 81 South 6th St
FREE FREE FREEÂ
For deets on facebook, click here.
Los Freaks de la Industry
I’m fairly sure by now some of you have heard of the mystical magical fun I have everytime I go down to Colombia and a lot of that has to do with our friends El Freaky in Bogota.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktEPuU4ch-g[/youtube]
Considered by Uproot Andy as myself as an integral part of the network of tropical parties worldwide like Peligrosa, Muevete, Tormenta Tropical etc, these dudes throw down in a really fun 2DJ/1VJ format incorporating animations from the bizarre but genius mind of Fat Suggar Daddy. I’ve partied really hard longside these guys and I’m really happy to announce the premier of the remix to their single La Pongo. Kuduro collabo from none other than Dany F and Bleepolar, who’s recent remix for Subatomic Sound System featuring Jahdan and Anthony B, I’m really happy to add a lil español to the kuduro crate.
OUR COCAINE MUSEUM
The last Mudd Up Book Clubb meetup was the most special to date, as The Slynx’s author Tatyana Tolystaya herself showed up unexpectedly. Translator Jamey Gambrell was able to join us as well. INCREDIBLE. To discuss one of my favorite books with its author & translator was a rare treat.
+ + +
[Taussig in a garden with yagé vines with Don Pedro, an Indian healer. Colombia, 1977. Via Cabinet.]
Our next selection is Michael Taussig’s My Cocaine Museum. Stoned anthropology written as a slide through heat & sensation in the shadow of Walter Benjamin. Thinking about gold, cocaine, slavery, boredom, color, history, centered around Afro-Colombian gold miners on Colombia’s Pacific coast. This is our second nonfiction book so far, and like Delany’s Times Sq Red, Times Sq Blue, the prose is incandescent, challenging and rewarding. Join us, we’ll meet in NYC on July 8th for My Cocaine Museum.
Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of the “A Dog Growls” chapter:
A dog growls in the doorway of the house where I am staying in GaupÃ. I have never heard this dog growl before. I look out into the street, There are two armed soldiers walking by on patrol in standard-issue camouflage. Strange how the dog picks up what most of us feel but do not express. What would happen if we all growled when soldiers walked by? A whole town growling! How wonderfully appropriate to growl back at the state, mimicking it, growl for growl, watching it magnify in the fullness of biological prehistory, writing being but another form of hair rising on the back of the neck. Slap up against the wall of the forest, you get an acute sense of the thing called the state. To me this is more than a heightening of contradiction exposing something hidden. I think of it as natural history, the natural history of the state.
Writing is sixth sense, what dogs are supposed to have, same as what filled the space between the words.
The first place I ever DJed cumbia was at Taussig’s place in upstate New York (a good friend was getting married – wedding DJ!). It wasn’t until a year or two later when I stumbled across all these lovely tracks from the Rio Timbiqui area of Colombia which he writes about so richly in My Cocaine Museum.
A laptop theft took those tunes out of my hands again, but here’s a related song. “I don’t want it” by Grupo Gualajo – a gorgeous marimba jam about foreigners coming to Pacific Colombia to spirit away “our music, our records, and tales of our ancestors / they arrive happy back home / because they took all our inspiration / we don’t value what we have / others come and take the best…”
[audio:http://negrophonic.com/mp3/Grupo_Gualajo-No_Quiero-www.negrophonic.com.mp3]Grupo Gualajo – No Quiero (from the Afritanga comp)
SWEAT LODGE FEBRUARY: ISA GT, RUPTURE, GEKO & SHADETEK
This February edition of Sweat Lodge we’ve got a special guest for Sweat Lodge all the way from Colombia by way of London. Â Isa GT has been a friend of the DA crew for a while now and making and releasing some awesome music. I first met her a few years ago at SXSW when she decided to jump on the mic and MC a little during my set at the Peligrosa / Tormenta Tropical party. It was outside on a patio and I played between Dubble Dutch and NguzuNguzu (before I knew DD!) and it was the first time I heard El Bebe Ambiente by NguzuNguzu. Suffice to say it was awesome and in the process Isa made a big impression on me with her personality. Actually here’s a picture, w/ everyone I mentioned plus Peligrosa madman and homie Orion. My arm looks like a weird snake but really that’s some historic shit right there. I’m happy to say we’ve connected the dots and here she is in NYC!
>>Â FACEBOOK RSVPÂ <<
Here’s a flavor of what she does, she’s going to do some performing and some DJing at the party.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONS0zpHhSlE&list=UUqzHtldOq7kjQukobhou0aw&index=12&feature=plcp[/youtube]
˙∆ INFOS ∆˙
DUTTY ARTZ SWEAT LODGE
Isa GT *LIVE/DJ* from Colombia via UK
DJs:
DJ /Rupture
Geko Jones
Matt Shadetek
Friday Feb. 10th 10PM-4AM
$$ FREE $$ ADMISSION
at The Cove, 108 N. 6th St, Brooklyn NY. Â Take the L train to Bedford or G to Lorimer and walk.
NYC debut: PERNETT
I’ve been on the road lately trying to get my worldwide airmiles up like the Jetlag King- DJ /Rupture. Miles to go before I sleep or even come close on that one, but the result thus far has been getting to play with a lot of ladies and gents I respect and admire and making friends of them along the way. Coming up in a couple weeks here in NYC, Que Bajo?! and Conrazon are collaborating with SOB’s to debut a friend and inspiration of mine by the name of Humberto Pernett. I wanted to take the time explain to you all who this guy is on a personal level as I’ve recently spent a great deal of time with him in Cali for the Petronio Festival and got to know his story.
Pernett’s dad was one of the founders of el Carnaval de Barranquilla. He grew up around amazing musicians his whole life. His aunt Carmencita Pernett was one of the first artists to take cumbia to mexico. Artists born in this type of conditioning? Femi Kuti comes to mind..
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVZO8NsbcFI[/youtube]
I think just by looking at the record cover you can tell dude’s family were some serious party people.
It was inevitable from his upbringing that Pernett would go on to explore los ritmos de la costa. Tambora, cumbia, bullerengue, puya, mapale sound more like the names of root vegetable or ingredients to a sancocho stew than names of rhythms but then all these styles are so distinctly satisfying on the dancefloor that their cohesion only make sense when you think about them that way.
Taking a blessing from his musical godmother, Toto la Momposina, Pernett would go further south to Bogota where he would meet Richard Blair, a UK-born producer and they would go on to form the band Sidestepper whose 3am: In beats we trust album would reverberate worldwide.
As someone who listened to the 6 degrees music label early on, and a researcher of world music fusion for quite some time I can say with confidence that the music from that album would go on to inspire a great many producers for years to come. Our global/tropical bass scene has a lot to thank them for. Electronic music, indeed, but at its essence their sound was a less mechanical and rooted deeply in Colombia’s rich musical heritage. It was a clearly defined turning point for Latin music.
Moving on to work on his own projects Pernett has continued folding time and space to create his own blend of psychodelic caribbean sounds. Carving a sound very much his own.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxernBT5oDs&feature=related[/youtube]
I invite you to listen to his soundcloud where he has over 100 original tracks and remixes uploaded
Change isn’t an overnight thing. The last car in the roller coaster sees the turn before it happens. But from where I’m standing, Pernett is a largely unsung hero who has and is helping shape the future of latin music. He’s someone that we should pay a lot more attention to. He’s so far ahead of the pack that it will probably be another couple years before the world catches up to his sound let alone his performance capabilities. His ableton live set up lets him trigger and effect tracks, while playing gaita or any number of traditional instruments which he can also effect, while singing and dropping some surreal visuals using his filters on his laptop cam. He’s one of those artists that keeps pushing himself to do more. To be more. And you should too. Be there to see him Oct 9th and feel more.
Que Bajo?! & Conrazon Present
Pernett (Colombia)
Oct 9th @ SOB’s $10 /10pm
New York, NY 10014-4810
(212) 243-4940
Pico de Gallos
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/22968445[/vimeo]
I’ve been traveling to Colombia at regular intervals to present a new sound fusing folkloric Afro-Colombian rhythms with modern day electronic music production techniques that harmonize into a synthetic club sound rooted in tradition. Via the internet, the birthplace of Cumbia has become a source of inspiration to a number producers worldwide. Recently, we invited some of the top names in the scene to a bandcamp in Colombia and a filmmaker to document it. We want to provide an insider view of the impact this music is having on the local scene and how a small network of globally minded producers are defying conventional standards of Latin club music.
We have a couple weeks to get this production costs for completing this project funded. To hear more about how you can help please visit http://www.indiegogo.com/Pico-de-Gallos