Javier Estrada - Ritmos del Mundo

Ritmos del Mundo Vol.1-4, Javier Estrada
Independiente/Mad Decent, Mexico
Rating: 77
by Carlos Reyes

Canada’s A Tribe Called Red and Mexico’s DJ Javier Estrada are responsible for one of the year’s most thrilling and spellbinding musical avalanches, “Indigenous Power.” Featuring a sample from Kanye West, this piece is the larger than life and all-absorbing landslide of 2011’s global pop. Before doomsday arrives and our planet aligns to the galactic equator, I’ll add my signature to the petition of shooting some essential records on a capsule to space for historic purposes. But before some secluded scholarly committee takes over the mission, I hope someone slips in a mix by DJ Estrada, perhaps within the booklet of any of the misguiding Putumayo compilations they’re likely to include.

Mixes, remixes, refixes, and originals from DJ Javier Estrada have been giving Soundcloud’s bandwidth a run for its money. Also catapulting his name to the frontlines of almost every relevant urban publication out there. The Monterrey-based DJ is building an impressive resume, melting genres and cultures alike with culinary effervescence in his series Ritmos del Mundo. Even more interesting is the fact he’s currently the melting pot of the nu-rural world villages, communities that include digital cumbia, guaracha, tribal, moombahton, ruidoson, and third world hip-hop. Estrada drops more mixes than we could possibly review or the general cumbia lover could hear, but he has recollected an impressive body of work in the four published volumes of Ritmos del Mundo. Whether injecting gravitational strength to The Police’s “Roxanne," outing Lalo Mora from his norteño cave in “Mi Casa Nueva,” or adding some bloody spills of his own in María y José’s “Violentao,” Estrada is a force of mammoth tropical bass and technological nature.

While his stylization and imaginative ownership of hits from Fito Olivares, Pitbull, or Gloria Estefan are expanding his popularity at a flashing pace, it’s in his semi-original pieces that Javier Estrada is truly bewitching. There is an evident progression in skill and ambition within each release. Vol.4, the latest, brings tracks like “Psychotic, Indian” and “Huitzilopochtly” that defy his modus operandi and really go to a deep level of personal quest and sonic proportion. Here he gets a distant glimpse of the dark experimental edges of Los Macuanos and Chancha Via Circuito. Estrada is still in limbo when it comes to approaching actual structures and space, but with the expert advice of Diplo and Toy Selectah, he seems destined for an even brighter future. All four volumes of Ritmos del Mundo belong to this year, which speaks a lot about Estrada’s flashing vision and forwardness. It might take us another quad of releases before we go back to report on his progress, but in the meantime we’re embracing the messiness and chaos of these four mixtapes, even approving of his “estas escuchando a DJ Estrada” watermark as something charming and commendable.

Ritmos del Mundo Vol.1
Ritmos del Mundo Vol.2
Ritmos del Mundo Vol.3
Ritmos del Mundo Vol.4
♫♫♫ El Niño y La Cumbia (DJ Javier Estrada Refix) | Soundcloud

Toy Selectah - Mex Machine

Mex Machine, Toy Selectah
Mad Decent, Mexico
Rating: 78
by Carlos Reyes

Monterrey filmmaker Rene U. Villarreal recently captivated the film festival circuit with his masterful debut Cumbia Callera, a film with minimal dialogue that through the magic of Cumbia (+ Son, Paseo & Puya), referenced everything from Cinderella, to 3-some erotica. Plenty has been said about Cumbia’s status as one of the new forms of global pop, and after witnessing its cultural rundown across various platforms, it’s time for a slight (if not shallow) re-contextualization of the cult phenomenon.

There are Cumbia-clerk scholars out there who would do a far better job outlining the health & credit report of the genre. I would however, arrive at the same landscape on an individual scale; there’s not a single profile more exciting to dissect than that of Toy Selectah. It might be a geographical matter, but Cumbia and all its mutations always seem to be pointing to Selectah as a sort of ultimate visionary. The legendary Mexican producer has built more bridges than anyone else in the world of Cumbia & Hip Hop, and those are the same channels that now find him celebrating the global-speaking Mex Machine, Toy’s best release to date.

After a few transitional releases (The Mex More, Bersa Discos, Sonidero Nacional), this 6-piece jukebox marks Toy Selectah’s career as a sort of career landmark in his role of music executioner & researcher. Mex Machine is a record in which percussion, harmonies, drums, beats, synths, excerpts & lines of speed melt into a global-sound village. Album opener “Sonidero Compay” shows the instinctive eclecticism that Selectah has embraced for many years (never discriminating genres or caring about indie vs. mainstream tags). Like a shamanistic workshop, "... Compay" is a piece that celebrates its cumbia-reggaetonesque vertebrate by embracing its own spiritual paradox. Despite always having both feet outside the norm, tracks like “La Ravertona” and “El Sabanero Raver” showcase a crowd-pleasing creator in absolute control over his medium.

Production-wise, Selectah employs a wide treatment to every piece in Mex Machine, mostly on the side of the hypnotic. There is physicality in every idea, and there’s plenty of room for exercise; hence, you could sense his music as foreign policy and realize it is of maverick caliber. The infrastructure in album-best “Half Colombian Half Mexican Bandit” is dualistic and celebratory to that extraordinary group of people in Monterrey (and other parts of Mexico) who see themselves as 'honorable' Colombians. Toy Selectah is Cumbia narrative. Whether it is Digital Cumbia, Hip Hop, Reggaeton, Rave, 3BALL or Ruidoson, Selectah is always ahead of the game as an artist, curator & tastemaker. Mex Machine succeeds in almost every artistic test it sets up, it’s a sonic minefield.

Maluca - China Food Mixtape

This morning we woke up to Mad Decent’s most recent release, one we’ve been salivating for too long. We’ve been pumping Maluca’s China Food Mixtape all day long. She sounds crazy, evil and damn sexy. It’s not the official debut LP everyone is wishing for, but after a year and a half of nonstop attention solely for her hit “El Tigeraso”, we finally get to hear more. Mad Decent describes this as “a biographical trilogy (Past, Present and Future), if you will, of her musical influences and own music.” While we weren’t expecting this mixtape, we would have hoped for her to include that Gloria Trevi cover so many people talked about on her Mexico City shows. Pay close attention to “Jungle Violento”, “Loca” and of course, the title track. To be reviewed in depth soon. Download Mixtape HERE.

Video: Maluca - "El Tigeraso"

Maluca’s “El Tigeraso” had profiled itself as one of the year’s hot songs but we weren’t expecting Rita Indiana y Los Misterios, Valentina Fel or Lido Pimienta to come and surprise us all. Not that our like towards Maluca has gotten smaller, it’s just that there’s much more to choose from and we’re applauding such fortunate circumstance. It’s been many months since she wowed bloggers across during SXSW week and she’s been touring with the Mad Decent crew since then. I get the feeling they’re taking way too much time to expose her album, they usually do that. While we wait to hear other songs other than the really awesome “El Tigeraso”, here’s the video. Cans in your head! Seriously, it would be dumb if MTV Tr3s doesn’t take advantage of this.

The Mex More, Toy Selectah

THE MEX MORE, TOY SELECTAH
Mad Decent, Mexico
Rating: 75
By Carlos Reyes

Mexico’s most predominant persona in Hip Hop released through Mad Decent his latest set of remixes, a term that’s quite short for a guy proving to be a creator rather than just another DJ out there. First, let’s remind ourselves that he is the mind behind two legacies that have changed our music itself, starting with Control Machete’s demanding functionality that introduced many of us to hip hop itself. Secondly, his collaboration in one of the landmark songs this decade has given us, Celso Piña’ “Cumbia Sobre El Rio”, the one song to point at if you want to understand the sudden growth for Cumbia in the last five years or so. In The Mex More, Toy refers o these pieces as ‘refixes’ or ‘raverton remixes’, whatever direction he’s taking let’s put full attention as he is an individual to follow. This set is to die for, if you’ve been lucky enough to attend one of his performances at Tormenta Tropical you know what to expect, clattering rhythms of the most popular and accessible manners, brain-explosive shifts and frenzy nudging gags that not only make people dance but build and destroy all forms of restraint. “El Mili” by Lil’ Wayne is rushed to a place of velocity and lucidness the original track had no perception of, and it continues with the tropical burst in Devendra Banhart’s “Carmensita”, to the heroic and almost anthem-like double feature of “One minute pal Cumbion!!!” by Justice, the three exclamatory signs are not even close to exaggeration. My favorite moment arrives with Air and its ravertonic vibe in “Sexy Boy”, Toy plays with time and patterns in a very domineering structure and yet keeping Air’s spirit out of harm's way. The Mexican infusion constructs bridges, and in “Shove it” by Santigold you can almost swear it was originally designed to shine in its new clothes, but things finally get to Mexico itself as Toy remixes “Volver a Comenzar” by Café Tacvba and “Bailen el Puto” by Molotov. It’s hard to rate this particular release, we’re anxious to see the upcoming works of Toy Selectah either solo or with Sonidero Nacional.

♫♫♫ "Bailen el Puto", Molotov (Mex-More Refix)
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The Mex-More LP, Toy Selectah LP Download

Just released through Mad Decent, a set of remixes by Toy Selectah. From Cafe Tacvba, Justice, Santogold, Devendra Banhart, Molotov and everyone's favorite, his take on Lil' Wayne's "A Mili." You know they're always fun. By the way, somebody please send me his remix of "Microdancing" by Babasonicos!

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"Shove it" - Santogold (Toy Selectah Cumbia Remix) [Via Mad Decent]

"El Tigeraso" - Maluca (Latest Mad Decent addition)

A friend I got from the Mad Decent family wanted to slap me for not knowing who Maluca was, their latest acquisition, and boy is he right, she is the bomb. Remezcla raved her performance at SXSW and she’s quickly getting the attention (unlike the awesome but still undiscovered Plastic Caramelo). Not only is she the freshest upcoming sensation, her funky and quirky personality will make any Latino out there proud. Her Dominican Republic roots are felt through her first official single “El Tigeraso” (produced by Diplo). The music is up there, it’s like Santogold with sexier vibes and very tropical, bring that merengue back! makes us very excited, and who knows, along with the upcoming Toy Selectah production, these two might just pull upfront for the reggaeton>neo-cumbia shift we are all expecting to occur in the upcoming months. Another tune I like way too much to not be inducted into our cheap and uncreative videos we got on YouTube.

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