As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I've never been a disco bunny (or any variation of a dancing queen).
But my critical distance has gone out the window with a club event coming up in a little over a week. Zizek, a weekly party that's been taking place in Buenos Aires for a little over a year, has become the hot spot not just for BsAs hipsters and jetsetting cool-hunters, but a real focus for people tuned to good mashups and ways to make different corners of the aural universe meet. And it's coming to SOBs Monday March 17.
It's on my mind because I'm working on a couple of pieces about, but the truth is I can't wait!
So, what's the big deal about these DJ nights? What's taken off is the neo cumbia or experimental cumbia movement, which takes cumbia villera (a ghetto version of the ubiquitous cumbia that became especially popular after the 2001 economic crisis) and mixes it with grime, reggaetón, dancehall, dubstep, etc.
I happen to like it because the crisis perversely made Argentines like the rest of us Latin Americans, jodidos, but really more because the sound is familiar, yet fresh. Taking cumbia and treating like Play Doh -- breaking it up, slowing it down, making it echo in other songs -- treats it not as cheesy, repetitive drivel (going back to my recent cantaletas about rockist dismissals of dance music) but as worthy raw material, a rich rhythmic vein. Without the "hipper than thou" ironic thing, either, even if one of the partners dreaming it up is a Texas expat who's made the most of this decade's Prague.
So I give you a couple of Zizek-related videos. One features King Coya & Trip Selector -- the visuals are muddy and the sound is passable at best, but it gives you a flavor of the sound and scene at the club. The other is a TV segment on Axel Krygier, aka Axel K Soundsystem. All will perform at the SOBs event.
To hear better samples of the touring DJ/producers, go to the Zizek Tour MySpace page. Last month Fat Planet uploaded a nice sampler.
[Photo via whatsupbuenosaires.com]
Drunken brown people out and about on St. Patty's Day? Be careful folks!
Posted by: Kiko Jones | March 07, 2008 at 11:34 AM
Caro,
baraja eso, se tiguere no ta de na.
y me excusa, pero no.
Posted by: Lm | March 07, 2008 at 02:51 PM