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Ya Llego Remix

CalenturaCover

Today marks a very big step for many of my homies here in the Los Angeles global bass (or whatever you’d prefer to call this sound) music scene. Early in my days here in LA, I found myself quickly gravitating towards Canyon Cody and the Subsuelo party that he helped start. That party became a home for me, and the people I met there became my friends & community. Subsuelo grew and became Calentura– an even bigger party/gathering/crew with new blood, expanded network reach, and finally, corporate sponsorship. Go ahead and scoff, but the truth is, even for those of us who live and breathe independent music, having a record label and/or liquor brand willing to fund what you do (without making too many concessions) is immensely helpful. It has allowed this vision to grow exponentially, and it’s showing no signs of stopping. So now Canyon has become the head of A&R at Fania records, essentially the Motown of Latin music. His first big project was to continue building the Calentura party by hiring bigger guest DJ’s, making more extravagant decorations, and incorporating this badass monthly fiesta into the record label. The second task was to begin commissioning remixes of the classic material from the Fania catalogue by today’s brightest producers who are continuing the spirit of this global party music that was once called “Salsa”. I feel honored to have been among the first people he asked to get involved. Today, the first compilation of this new generation of Fania music has launched. I have 2 songs on here, one of them brand new. And I’m also happy to say, I have an entire EP’s worth of material dropping shortly on Fania. For that you will have to stay tuned…

Here’s my remix of Willie Colon & Mon Rivera’s “Ya Llego”. Do yourself a favor and check out the entire release which premiered on SPIN today

  • Senor Griff

    Love your Mon Rivera remix on this collection. Looking forward to it becoming available. I’m not a huge fan of the ‘global bass’ sound. Sounds to me like ‘Human League does world music on a Casio VL tone’. Too many other remixes on this collection collapse into meaningless bleeping. It kind of takes the soul out of it. I love the fact that you keep the feel of the originals whilst making them totally nuts for the 21st century dancefloor. Love those trombones. Keep on doing what your doing.

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Pun Pun Catalu Remix

FaniaCover

Merengue-meets-trap craziness cooked up by me and my homie Canyon Cody (Subsuelo mastermind and Planet Rock cohort). Canyon also works at Nacional records and helps organize the LAMC in NYC, which is where he met the current owner of the legendary Fania Records. It is thanks to him that I had the honor of getting access to some original multi-track tapes from this late-70’s session with La Reina Celia Cruz and the gangster trombonist extraordinaire Willie Colon. While this wouldn’t have been my first choice of songs to remix from their massive catalogue, it did lend itself quite nicely for a half-time heavy-bottom flip up, which is something that Canyon & I like to play a lot of at our weekly Saturday night get down. Press play and be ready for a quick dose of sonic adrenaline. Also, big shout out to SPIN.com for premiering it yesterday!

  • dawn

    Very cool thanks. Passed it on to my DJ nephew who’s been looking for something to get them sweating here in Freezzing Cape Town…

  • gate io

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¡Viva Fania!

LoMato

I had the absolute pleasure (& honor) of being the guest DJ at this week’s Subsuelo party at East Side Luv on Thursday night. This party has been one of my favorite gatherings in LA since I first moved here (almost 4 years ago! damn time flies), and now I’m happy to call every member of the crew who promotes the night my friend. Still, this is only my second time DJ-ing there, and despite the fact that I DJ in or around LA 2-3 nights a week, it’s a very rare occasion when I can play a set like the one I did this week. For starters, we were celebrating 50 years of Fania Records– for those unschooled, this is the quintessential NYC salsa record label- the same record label that fueled all my vinyl DJ sets at Bembe back in the day when I was just cutting my teeth. Then there was a live performance from Boogaloo Assasins (who absolutely killed it), and sounded about as legit as any classic Latin outfit I’ve heard since seeing Cachao, Tito Puente & Eddie Palmieri play together. And finally, Canyon Cody and I were celebrating the release of our official remix for Fania which drops next week. So that’s exciting too. Anyway, playing a lot of those classics got me inspired to pull out a playlist of some old staples of mine that haven’t seen the light of day in way too long. They aren’t all Fania, but in the vein, and strictly 60’s & 70’s recordings, which still sound perfectly fresh to my ears.

Willie Colon :       La Murga &       La Banda
the very same gangster trombonist pictured above.

Tito Puente :       Batuka
this song is about as proto-moombahton as it gets, 108bpm, huge build, dem bow conga riddim, just recorded 40 years earlier.

Celia Cruz :       Quimbara
the cuban cantante powerhouse. So thankful I got to see her live in Central Park shortly before she passed.

Batacumbele :       Se Le Ve
a cuban poly-rhythm masterpiece

Marvin Santiago :       Fuego A La Jicotea
this is what you call “salsa dura”, which basically means it burns up the dancefloor

Ray Barretto :       The Soul Drummers &       Acid
early boogaloo from the funky spiritual hippie conguero of the Fania crew.

Ralph Robles :       Banana Juana
a lost feel-good boogaloo gem that you still won’t find in the iTunes store.

Mongo Santamaria :       O Mi Shango
santeria funk jazz fusion delivered from another legendary conguero

Cachao Y Su Combo :       Malanga Amarilla
a super oldie from Cuba that still swings

Joe Bataan :       Ordinary Guy (Afrofilipino version)
and a little something smoothed out to finish off the set. This is one of maybe 10 versions of this song that Mr. Bataan recorded, perhaps the most laid back of the bunch.

 

  • Dangerscouse

    Listen to ‘1992 Pt II’ by Too Many Ts. I could listen to it all day long….funky, bouncy, flute loop hiphop.

  • Lyle

    Great songs. I’m so excited to start listening to the ones I don’t have (and the ones I have are terrific).

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