South American music and culture magazine

Barranquilla Carnival is one of the most colourful and intense carnivals in South America and second in size only to Brazil’s. As artist Diego Samper Martinez puts it, the Carnival of Barranquilla is “the ultimate people’s celebration — the merriest, the loosest, true to the free-wheeling Caribbean spirit.” Continue Reading

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

A special New Year’s treat here in the shape of two new mixes from La Tabaquera – aka the latest project from Rodrigo Caçapa and Alessandra Leão – both celebrating classic Colombian music. We originally featured La Tabaquera’s Peru mixtape a few months ago, and these Colombian mixtapes offer much of the same, i.e. great music from Colombia’s past featuring plenty of cumbia, porro, descarga, salsa, champeta and much more. Continue Reading

Over the past sixty years, the Colombian music genre Cumbia has rocked dance floors in it’s native land as well as the global music stage. However, cumbia has not always been so popular with the music-loving masses. Its early beginnings, found at the mouth of the Magdalena River and the Atlantic Ocean were largely viewed with disdain, especially for its association with societal lower classes. It was seen as a highly inappropriate dance, dating back to Colombia’s colonial past and consisted of a somewhat ‘sexualised’ dance between the sexes. It was a courtship ritual that celebrated the musical, as well as social interaction between people of African ancestry and the indigenous people of Colombia known as zambos. Continue Reading

One of the most interesting groups coming out of Colombia’s nueva cumbia scene is undoubtedly Frente Cumbiero. So far they have released a 7″ on Brooklyn’s Names You Can Trust record label and a collaborative album with Mad Professor, titled Frente Cumberio Meets Mad Professor, which was released on CD and vinyl earlier this year. On both releases they take the cumbia legacy in a more electronic direction, while still staying close to its roots, setting them apart from acts like Bomba Estéreo that have used Colombian music as a starting point to explore new musical hybrids. Continue Reading

Because we live in such a digital age, most things are divided between that which is technological and new, or that which is organic and conventional. And music is no exception – in it’s most basic forms, it is either completely electronic or completely traditional. Yet over the past twenty years or so, artists have begun to mix these two genres, and a hybridized style has emerged, notably through acts like Portishead and Thievery Corporation. Since then, musicians have experimented with this combination of sounds to the extreme, simultaneously exploring older classic sounds along with new, avant-garde ones. And in today’s music scene, the Argentine-based ZZK Records is perhaps the most exemplary representation of this hybridity through their experimentation with the sounds of digital cumbia. Continue Reading

Global music moguls Soundway Records have released another bag of Colombian treats with The Original Sound of Cumbia: The History of Colombian Cumbia & Porro As Told By The Phonograph 1948-79. This time round, we are introduced to the musical sensations of cumbia and porro – both styles richly embedded within Colombian heritage and its diverse soundscape. Continue Reading

The Original Sound of Cumbia is a new collection of original cumbias and porros from Soundway Records. It’s been lovingly compiled by Will “Quantic” Holland and will be officially released on 5th December. Before that though you can get a taster of those classic cumbias by attending this launch party on Friday November 25th. Continue Reading

Frente Cumbiero have pushed themselves to the front of the international cumbia scene after releasing their Pitchito 7″ last year. Now they have followed it up with Frente Cumbiero Meets Mad Professor, a record that will surely solidify their status as ones to watch. Continue Reading

Ever wondered what it would sound like it Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab went Colombian. This is possibly your best chance of finding out, NOIA’s remix of “Ndeleng Ndeleng” which aims for a distinctly cumbian flavour.

You can listen to lots more tropical work-outs from Noia at soundcloud.com/noia

Pernett‘s version of New Order’s “Blue Monday” has been knocking around for a while, but he recently posted it up on Soundcloud and, as we hadn’t featured it on the site before, we thought it was about time we got it involved.

For those who are interested, Will “Quantic” Holland is on accordion for this and Lido Pimienta provides vocals. Lido you should know from her excellent Colombian Party People Mixtape that she put together with Isa GT for Sounds and Colours.

So, if you’ve ever wondered what a cumbia version of “Blue Monday” would sound like, here’s your chance.

It’s been far too long since we featured a cumbia mixtape here on Sounds and Colours. So, today we are happy to bring you Cumbia Venenosa del Roots a la Digital Vol 1 from French/Chilean DJ Inti. Continue Reading