Last month, iBomba at Bembe was on fire with a remarkable performance by Titica, Angola’s kuduro queen and first transgender performer to get international acclaim. Thanks to the collaboration with Chief Boima and Many Tribes One Blood, Titica’s performance at iBomba added to our motivation to challenge crowds and open up a space for innovative performers and DJs to collaborate and shape the dancefloor. It was also what got me in the official mix with Dutty Artz.
[Photos Above]: Titica performing at iBomba @ Bembe
I’m really proud of the intentionally chosen lineup of guest DJs we’ve had since iBomba took on Mondays at Bembe by storm this year, including DJs Chela, Itch-13 (Sonic Diaspora, Chicago), Rekha (Basement Bhangra) and Ripley (Surya Dub, SF) – who have all added a different sound and vibe to what is becoming a regularly well-attended 2nd Monday of the month.
By hosting iBomba, I’ve been able in a sense to curate the nights, purposefully highlighting dope female DJs when we can, and with Titica’s performance last month, hopefully adding to a conversation around queerness in music and performance coming out of the Global South.
There’s a lot we have brewing for the summer and beyond, so keep to date with what iBomba is up to. This Monday, May 14th, come hit the floor with us as Cluster Mag mastermind, Max Pearl, guest deejays alongside residents Beto and Mios Dio. Facebook event here. Peep the listing in Remezcla.
Cumbia meets Dancehall meets that good Global Bass.
DJ Rupture, Maluca, Total Freedom, Shawn Reynaldo, Oro 11, & Mas Exitos bringing the tropical whomp in San Francisco and Los Angeles this weekend. FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS CABRONES! Epic.
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..
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.
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
204 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014-4810
(212) 243-4940
People of LA! This Saturday one-time Mudd Up! guest and great DJ Lengua will celebrate his record release party for his LP Cruzando put out by Unicornio Records. Más Exitos crew + special guests, Mister Juanderful and Sonido Franko will play some great vinyl you would be hard-pressed to hear anywhere else. In Más Exitos’ words expect everything “from fuzzy cumbias, to jumping boogaloos, to funky soul oddities, to disco aztecas, rock n’ rolleros, a-go-go latino, paisadelic-psychedelic freak outs and janky electro beats.”
Que Bajo?! returns to NYC after touring Miami, Medellin, Barranquilla, Bogota, Cali, and SXSW… come hear exclusive new remixes from myself, Uproot Andy, DJ Orion, Toy Selectah, Isa GT and more and check out our guest DJ’s Venus X of the Ghe20 Gothik Party who just rocked the shit out of the fader fort at SXSW and Panchitron from the Peligrosa All Stars crew down in Texas. Pancho’s mixtape stayed in heavy rotation last month for Que Bajo?! fans
Thursday March 31
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleeker St
11pm -$10
It’s the return of the intergalactic gauchitos better known as Uproot Andy and Geko Jones. After a brief winter recess moon-walking across the globe and cooking up hotter than habanero remixes the Que Bajo?! party is back like a zombie Danny Trejo
On January 27th we welcome the Dutch-Dominican wonderkid DJ Munchi all the way from Rotterdam, Netherlands. Moombahton stylee from one of the scenes top notch DJ’s.
We have a couple of special surprises to announce as we get closer to the date but I wanna go ahead and introduce VJ Miixxy who will be controlling visuals for the evening.
NOTE: Lamin Fofana will be joining L.A.’s notoriously good live act Very Be Careful and I at Coco66 in Brooklyn this Saturday. So come get yr Afro- Latino- post-identitarian noir noir crunk dosage, we goin’ in deep. Like Garvey, except instead of black nationalism it’s accordions. Or 808 kicks. Probably both.
Very Be Careful are from L.A. and play a rowdy rootsy version of Colombian Vallenato & Cumbia. VBC have released a number of albums over the years but it’s their live shows — legendary, high-proof fun — which have won them a kind of cult following. Accordion cultists, it turns out, are the best kind.
Catch em in Brooklyn’s Coco 66 this Saturday Jan. 8th, along with yrs truly, DJ Rupture & Lamin Fofana. Not to be missed! I’ll give away some tix on my radio show tonite, 7-8pm WFMU.
I got about 45 minutes warning that Los Gaitero de San Jacinto were performing in Paris the other night. The band has been active since AT LEAST 1940 so there’s only so many chances we’re gonna get to see them. I was hanging with percussionist Cyril Atef when I got the text. We had been discussing the african origins of colombian music and instumentation while going through choons for almost an hour. Him tagging along was merely a variation on a meme. I still have to download the video and flicks of the show from my camera but lemme go ahead and do a separate post to tell you about the opening act we walked in on, a cumbia-fusion meets visual trio from Bogota called retroVISOR
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/11532341[/vimeo]
On rhythm section you have Camilo Giraldo Angel & Luis Alfonso Cruz laying down some free range samplodelic tripiness but it was the work of the VJ and concept director for the bands videos, Carmen Gil Vrolijk aka Carmen Electrik that really got me interested in their performance. Criminally brilliant with a side of smokin hot she’s chopping some well fruity slices of video mango that illustrate the flavor of these songs amazingly
she has degree in plastics
In the above tune, Chicha! she collaborated with a EstefanÃa Barreto & Juan Camilo Quiñones to create an 8 bit video that deals with native inhabitants being pushed out of their lands by big industry, a problem Colombia still faces today particularly with the damage being done from unearthing gold which releases mercury, cyanide and arsenic into the soil and water table. I’m waiting for my copy of their retroVISOR VJ Sessions DVD while doing my homework on what else she’s up to and trying to convince her to come out and session with me when I play in Bogota again
I have to say, at the Monterrey tribal guarachero rave I wrote about for The Fader, it was incredible to watch the DJs go from 128bpm tribal, then slam into a cumbia rebajada (crowd cheers!) then move onto crunk-en-espanol, then Cypress Hill en espanol, then back to tribal, all in the space of 10 minutes. It was the only rap moment of the night — mediated by syrup-cumbia… and the dancing never stopped! Outside the party, one kid walked around with a SWISHAHOUSE tee on.
Here’s what ppl dont understand. We were raise in Texas, so screw music is what we know. But our parents raised us with traditional music like cumbias, etc. This is our music, a mix of what we know and what we grew up hearing.
tHE sECOND aLbUm BY thE kUMBIA qUEERS, “La Gran Estafa del Tropipunk” (The Great Tropipunk Swindle) is fantastic! Following up on their covers LP, this is a record of primarily original material from “six girls who play tropical punk,” easily one of the albums of the year if you live within earshot of my world.
I can’t find a purchase point at the moment, so I’ll hold off on further notes until I can link to magic you can buy. Suffice to say I’ve been waiting for this ever since producer-wizard Pablo Lescano of Damas Gratis played material from it over his SUV’s incredible soundsystem as we swerved around Buenos Aires (an optimal listening experience if there ever was one).
We are dropping  a 12 track tropical compilation just in time for when things start to get cold in New York and hot in Rio. Ten unreleased TROPICAL tunes + anthemic FUNKY THAT WE HAD TO COSIGN and A HEAVYWEIGHT NEW MASTER OF NGUZUNGUZU’s EL BEBE AMBIENTE. We feel bad that we have not kept up our LEGENDARY New York Tropical parties- but we just do not have time to promote a crew club night in New York- but maybe again in the future, with some good partners we would get into it again- because NEW YORK TROPICAL WAS A FUCKING BLESSING. The first time I went was before I had really started working with DA and everything about it was perfect. From the German Belgian installation art that slowly dissolved as the dancefloor spread to all surfaces, to the perfect Sangria, the heavy weight dancehall soundsytem that we rented from SoundMan Grimm, a crowd that reflected the diversity of the music…. basically NYT was one of the dopest party series I’ve ever taken part in (although sadly I never got to play caus I was busy learning things in school and hanging out in Europe).
For the comp we hooked up with DA resident internet excavator Seacrest Cheadle  892 u mean computer mean2 computer did u mean competitor a force that has been so next level for so long that it is basically my only internet news source. We have been dreaming of doing projects with him/it/her/zee since before the first .com crash but he’s basically the zeitgeist embodied and besides pretty regular appearances at Korea Town Karaoke Bars and Neurogenetic labs in undisclosed locations- she is damn near impossible to locate. but somewhere in the #based ether we convinced it them 2 make a deadline… and magically, it worked.
Our promo machine is at about cotton gin status at this point… so we just moving FWD looking towards a more cohesive way to reach a larger audience. I dont open or listen to almost any of the promo email I get, and you dont either. But some of it will keep coming but really this whole thing is about relationships. I, for one, am working on my relationship to the ocean and fresh fruit juice in Brazil. I suggest you keep a dream journal while you ask these questions.
There are also tracks on this compilation from important and soon to be important musicians like Lamin Fofana, Kingdom (flipping RITA INDIANA OMFG!), Lido Pimienta, Matt Shadetek, DJ /Rupture, Chief Boima, DJ Orion, Sonora, Salem,  Knight Magic,  La Ola Criminal, Maga Bo.
Tracks will be sold digitally via Hulk Share and on custom GuccixDuttyArtz all-over-print USB sticks
Joyful music for an expensive, shitty city with decaying infrastructure where DUTTY ARTZ lives & loves.
If you already know (you know) Mariana “Meteoro” Camberos art, it’s likely through her work for ZZK. She is one of the artist’s responsible for codyfing the visual vocabulary of Zizek/ZZK branding; which is how I first became familiar with her. But that’s just one mirror-facet of her diverse output, or as she put’s it, “someone once said my work was very Zizek…. but I said, Im not zizek… zizek is all the artists.”
Meteoro Painting
Her neuva-tropical psychedelic day-glo works and styling jobs are right on the palm frond edge of the tropical communities (does that exist… maybe it does.) collective unconscious. Seriously fresh-2-death designs evoking modern day icons like Carrie Mundane, early MIA styling, NYstreet style Keith Harring/ Basquit iconography pushing up against sacred ayuwasca geometries and jungle fractals. Her custom hand painted tees, hoodies, and zapatos are being rocked by some of the dopest kids outs (check the aviary shirt she did for Uproot Andy next time you see him), and her styling and 2-d work is equally stunning. Over a couple days of endless tea, empanadas, and tasty chino delight- we discussed inane visa regulations, liminal space, our shared love of cumbia sung by little girls and a party called drum&boxx that put young contenders (rocking her custom fur-lined robes) boxing on the floor in a ring made of jungle-stepping ravers. (The interview that followz is the first of a series I’ll be upping and posting, along with photos, flipcam and musings- while I travel as a Watson fellow… it took me a while to finish this post- im now in Rio)
Fresh Shipment of Meteoro's shoes ready to go to Paris
T: Your palette is focusing alot on day-glo/neon vibes- ur using all of these crazy brazillian fabric paints…. but day-glo has been moving onto clothes since the 1930’s– so what exactly is there left to say using this palette?
M: PUES ES FLUORECENTE Y FLUORESCENTE SIGNIFICA ILUMINADO POR DENTRO ESTO YA ME LLAMA MUCHO LA ATENCION
LA COSA DE BRILLAR CON LUZ NEGRA Y EN MEXICO SE DICEN QUE SON COLORES QUE CHINGANÂ (JODEN) LA PUPILA Y AMO ESO
T: you push a psychadelic vibe- but from a distinctly latin american approach…. im seeing these sorts of fractal designs all over your apartment- but with none of the new agey shit that kills alot of western hippy psychadelic stuff- where do you see the convergence of european /american and latin approaches to these forms.
M: MMM ES INTUITIVO Y NO ES ALGO QUE VEA SALE SIMPLEMENTE SON LAS COSAS QUE ME LLAMAN LA ATENCION Y ADENTRO HAGO UNA SINTESIS, SON COSAS EN LAS QUE CREO Y OTRAS QUE ME VIENEN SOLAS COMO MUSAS.
T: youve been in Argentina for 5 years- what has it done for your work- why here- what wasnt working for you in mexicO- or why did you have to come here.
M:DESDE SIEMPRE QUISE ESTUDIARR FUERA DE MI PAIS PARA TENER OTRA PERSPECTIVA Y COMO PRETEXTO DE VIAJE, Y ARGENTINA POR QUE ALGUIEN ME CONVENCIO QUE ERA UNA BUENA OPCION Y MUY AJUSTABLE A MI PRESUPUESTO
Y ASI LO HICE.. ME DEJE LLEVAR .. AL PRINCIPIO SEGUIA SIN ENTENDER POR QUE ACA PERO LAS COSAS Y LA GENTE QUE HE CONOCIDO ME CONFIRMAN QUE ASI DEBIA SER.
T: what does tropical mean to you?
M:TOPICAL SIGNIFICA BUENA VIDA YO VIVI EN UN LUGAR TROPICAL Y ERA PURA ABUNDANCIA SOL FRUTAS MUSICA MAR ESO ES LO QUE LLEVO DENTRO Y LO QUE ME MUEVET
T:where do you see the visual intersecting with music? whats to be gained by understanding this relationship
M: POR QUE LA MUSICA NO SOLO ES UN DJ ES SU IMAGEN, LOS VISUALES EL STAGE Y LA ESCENA EN GRAL. ASI QUE UNÂ BUEN VESTUARIO ES INDISPENSABLE PARA TERMINAR DE CONCRETAR LA IDEAÂ DE LO QUE SE ESTA MOSTRANDO LO QUE SE QUIERE DECIR Y EXPRESAR. ES LLEVAR ESE RITMO A TODOS LOS NIVELES ESTETICOS Y ESCENICOS
Fresh Tour Shirt(s) for Cumbia Duo Frikstailers
T: your selling these dope handpainted shoes- but i know you really want a whole fashion and arts line/house….is there a master plan at all?
M: YEAH DO ALOT OF METEORO LUCHY CHARMS STUF LIKE OBJECTS TOYS CLOTHES,.. MORE KIND OF SHOES.. UN MURAL QUIZASÂ Y COSAS PARA GENTE QUE LO NECESITA
T: ok- top literature influences, top musical influences, top artist influences, top designer influences…
M: KANDINSKY, CHARLES BUKOWSKI, JODOROVSKY, cLOUDDEAD, M.I.A, BRAZILIAN GIRLS, ALL CUMBIA, YMA SUMAC, matt w moore, AJ Fosik, HIHO AOSHIMA, YOSHITOMO NARA, MOTOMICHI, walter van beirendonck, TSUMORI CHISATO, Vivienne Westwood.
T: i know you love chocolate, can you recomend any of your favorite chocolates?
M:CARDUBY DE YOGURTH, Y UNOS COLOMBIANOS QUE TIENEN TUCANES EN EL EMPAQUE, Y.. UNOS ALEMANES QUE TIENEN MEZCLA DE FRUTAS TROPICLAES CON PICANTE ESOS SON INCREIBLES!
T: anyything else u want a bunch of blog readers to know about?
M: SERIA QUE HAY QUE PONER MAS ATENCION A LA FUSION ENTRE MUSICOS Y DESE;ADORES POR JUNTOS PODEMOS DAR UN GRAN MESAJE
NO SUBESTIMAR LO QUE LLEVAS PUESTO YA QUE POR MAS SIMPLE QUE SEA ESTA DICIENDO ALGO Y QUIERES QUE DIGA LO QUE SEAÂ O PONERLE TU TU PROPIO MENSAJE DE BUENA ONDA
Mi bredren, DJ Still Life blesses us with his Tropicaaliyah EP of Aaliyah remixes for your anniversary party needs. In case your not tuned in, he’s got a global bass show on East Village Radio called Worldwide Smash that you should check out
