Abstract Index Playlist - July 8/09

Waxing Deep main man Dan Zacks turned many heads with his "Si Para Usted" compilation a couple of years ago. Most of the appeal came from the sheer funk factor of these tracks: it's vintage music, but not Buena Vista Social Club vintage. More eyebrow raising was the fact that Zacks' radio show (which led to his label) hailed from Fredericton New Brunswick.

I'm not a big fan of the "how could X music have possibly come from unlikely Y location?" trope. If anything, in this case, a dancefloor oriented collection of Cuban sounds is a perfect fit for a Canadian entrepreneur as I opined in my Exclaim review. For one thing, I can't see too many American DJs being able to get around their country's restrictive laws about USA/Cuban initiatives to put something like this together. I've always thought that a Canadian (or a Brit) would be the ideal compiler for such a project. Though the licensing didn't come easy according to Dan, that's what happened.

This second volume is even better than the first. It remains full of obscurities and relatively well known names (like Juan Pablo Torres and, for us Canadians, Hilario Duran) but the overall pacing and quality of the individual tracks makes for an even more involved listen than the first time around. Here's hoping that Zacks lends his discerning ear to compilations in the future, or at the very least, puts together some killer blog playlists.

Podcast

el sueno y andria - mirtha & raul (waxing deep)
idhagbe - fred fisher (vampisoul)
wanto doke - cheik hamala diabate (grigri)
jinju dervish - john kameel farah (drosstik)
cottonmouth lothario - deru (mush)
zom zom - elias da kimuezo rmx by mauricio pacheco & dj cris (out here)
misterio stereo - curumin (quannum)
linda moreno - quantic y su combo barbaro (tru thoughts)
miarches - forest swords (leftist nautical)
rough out there - noiseshaper (tokyo tower mix) (select cuts)
check dis - daddy rings (african glory)
dem mad - busy signal (life time)
marijuana marijuana - jah thomas (roots)
traveling dub - debra keese & the black five (trojan)