South American music and culture magazine

We’ve got two mixtapes today from AltoPeru, which confusingly is the name of a cumbia/dub/reggae collective from Buenos Aires, Argentina. AltoPeru take their moniker from an early name for the land that is now Bolivia, which isn’t Argentina either. Okay, so we don’t really know why they are called AltoPeru, but we do know that this is some pretty decent cumbia here mixed with a laidback dub sound for when you need to get a nice, chilled groove on. You know the kind of groove? You’ve had a few beers, a bit of food, you feel you need to get mobile, but nothing too crazy. This is the ticket. Continue Reading

Every once in a while, a film appears which seems to come out of nowhere, but which touches everyone who sees it. The way it happens is that usually the film festival circuit see it first: programmers, critics and those few lucky discerning members of the public who might rave about it to their friends without ever knowing if the film will see the light of day again. Las Acacias is one of these films. Continue Reading

“There are no statistics of the soul. There is no way to measure the depth of the cultural wound… we cannot know to what point we have been mutilated in our consciousness, our identity and our memory.”

— Eduardo Galeano

Like many of her contemporaries, Silvia Malagrino left Argentina in 1978 to escape the repressive military dictatorship. Three decades later, she filmed her return, reflecting her desire to know and remember her abandoned country, to find a way to be present and absent from the histories that haunt her. Continue Reading

La Revancha En Cumbia is the intriguing new release from Gotan Project, taking songs from their hugely influential La Revancha del Tango album and recasting them as slow-burning cumbia tunes thanks to a number of Latin DJs and producers. Continue Reading

New album Songs For An Imaginary Film from Les Mentettes, previously knows as Les Mentettes Orchestra, a motley bunch of musicians from Argentina. Their sound has echoes of the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and the bands that they influenced, but has it’s own charm too. With lyrics in English, it’s clear this is definitely a band planning big things. Continue Reading

The cost of living in Argentina has risen considerably over the last few years. Since the economic and political chaos which followed the country’s sovereign default in 2002, economic growth has returned to Argentina with the economy growing by over 40% since 2007. Continue Reading

Great new compilation from El Remolon in support of his and the ZZK crew’s tour of Europe this Fall/Autumn. The aptly-named ZZK Fall Tour Mixtape features a tonne of El Remolon remixes, refixes, edits and mashups, as well as tracks & collaborations with Mercedes Sosa, Nicolas Jaar, Javier Estrada, Los Destellos, Los Reyes de La Milanga, Max le Daron, Le Freak Selector, Analogik, Daniel Klauser and Super Guachin. Continue Reading

Los Animales Superforros played at SESC Pompeia in Sao Paulo yesterday, supporting Cerebro Eletronico. They are clearly a band on the rise. Their music recalls Animal Collective with dashings of Fleet Foxes and Divididos, evoking the vast regions of Argentina and even incorporating elements of Andino and other traditional Argentine music.

Their current plan is to release a number of EPs, of which Coplas is the latest. Yet their most recent album was a set of 10 tracks for children, called Monona en la Calesita written for Proyecto Monona in Buenos Aires and which, although more basic in nature and exploring simpler melodies, has just as much allure as their “adult” material. [If you get the chance you should also check out Proyecto Monona itself - lots of great handmade goods and other items]

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It’s election season in Argentina, which means bread and circus for porteños in spades, since the lion’s share of voters live in the city and province of Buenos Aires. Entertaining the masses and convincing them to vote for you is a bit trickier, however, when the mayor of the capital, Mauricio Macri, and the president of the nation, Cristina Kirchner, do not have the habit of making lunch dates. Continue Reading

If you’re sick and tired of club culture, VIP access, huge entrance fees, even larger drink prices and designated times in which you’re able to party, then maybe you should check out Bumbumbox. Maybe you could even start a Bumbumbox of your own. That’s what Matias Aguayo, Eugenia Caloso, Pablo Castoldi and Gary Pimiento did. Continue Reading

This year has seen new releases from Soema Montenegro, Violeta Castillo, Julieta Sabanes and Luciana Taglipietra. It’s almost as if the death of Mercedes Sosa has left a huge space that the female singers of Argentina must try and fill. Continue Reading