Archive for the ‘Mexicans With Guns’ tag
KEXP is a behemoth. Both as an online radio station and as a terrestrial broadcaster in Seattle and New York, the station is a perennial tastemaker, and has moved many musicians from these bloggy nether regions into the central (and hopefully bills-paying) mainstream.
It’s a great role to play, which is why it’s nice to see a new show, “El Sonido,” on KEXP that is all all all about “Latin” music. A lot of the music we put up here can, theoretically, be grouped under that particular rubric, and it’s good to see one of the big dogs in this game give it some shine.
To celebrate the upcoming show (it kicks off on May 23rd, from 6-9pm PST), show boss DJ Chilly (pictured above with Los Rakas) put together a mix of the type of musics he’s going to be playing. It’s a good look for the show, featuring some of my favorite folks, from stalwarts like Los Rakas and Uproot Andy to some of the newer kids on the scene like Mexicans With Guns, Sonora, Zuzuka Poderosa, Chancha and Atropolis.
All in all, vurrry solid. Take a listen, and tune in to support.
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Download: DJ Chilly ¡Manos Arriba! mixtape (right click, save as)
Tracklist after the jump.
It’s almost that time of year again, when the hordes of music makers, scenesters, wannabes, never-were’s, and assorted fans descend upon that jewel in Texas’s crown, Austin. I speak, of course, of South By Southwest. As if I could be speaking of anything else.
This year will be the first that Last Night’s Mixtape has a formal presence for the big to-do, and we’re going to be previewing a bunch of the groups that various LxNxM mafiosi will be catching. But before we wade neck deep into the global ecosystem of sounds that will infest Austin, I want to take a short jaunt to the south west, and get into some of the sounds coming out of a – very frankly – surprising location: San Antonio.
If you followed the rise of cumbia as a dancefloor-wrecking sound, you probably stumbled across San Antonio’s DJ/producer/party-thrower Sonora at some point. Unlike some remixers, Sonora’s revisitations of everything from Usher to LxNxM favorites Los Rakas aren’t simply throwing a beat over the same song. If Guinness adds life, as they say, then Sonora adds flavor.
Los Rakas ft Favi – Abrazame (sonora remix) by SONORA
Going in a whole different direction, The Empireal Formula is a producer and DJ whose work goes back towards minimalism and understated tweaks. It’s an interesting contrast to the high-bombast production work that can be seen as a rework, and it shines through in his original work as well (not that remixes aren’t original, but hell, we live in a binary world, amirite?).
Limit To Your Love (The Empireal Formula Remix) by The Empireal Formula
And last but not least on this tip-of-the-iceberg/grill tour of San Antone, behold the man with the best name in… ever? That would, of course, be Mexicans With Guns. What can be said about this man that cannot be said about the many other djs who rock luchador masks 24/7? Wait – did you say that there are no other djs who keep their identity a closely guarded secret and change clothes in phone booths wear a wrestling mask at all times? Let’s just say that when your peers are Deadmau5, Toadally Krossed Out, and Frikstailers, you’re doing something right. Evidently the Red Bull Music Academy agrees, and put on Mr. With Guns for an exclusive podcast.
You can get the full range of Lone Star electronical tastes – with healthy representation from San Anto – from the subtly titled compilation Texas. Curated by San Antonio label Exponential Records, Texas brings together fourteen producers from a variety of different electronic styles. You can catch tracks from some of the folks listed here, as well as a variety of others, and it’s an interesting slice into a scene that doesn’t yet have a Texas-sized footprint outside of Texas.
