Abstract Index Playlist - February 24/10

Couldn't resist posting about yet more cumbia this week. According to the Twitter/Facebook grapevine, Austin-based DJ Orion Garcia was passing through New York to guest on various radio shows and in clubs that I hope to visit someday (spoken like a true Torontonian). I wasn't familiar with his music before; I'll certainly be following him now.

These are re-edits for the most part, with additional drum machine programming pasted on top for extra bounce. One of the first descriptors attached to the music is Baltimore club, which, despite its notoriety for the last decade, I don't know a thing about, except that any music that uses the "Sing Sing" and "Think (About It)" breaks is OK by me on at least some level. What's more intriguing is when these breaks collide with Cuban bata drumming, which meshes well with the tambores of cumbia. Add to that some effective use of rave-inspired keyboard sounds and the soundscape is a potent blend of coolness and caliente.

But it all comes back to the excitement of the original tunes, which are massaged by extending loops, fade ups and downs, filter-swept and resampled. I've always maintained that whenever one comes across a form of music anywhere in the world with some kind of inherent boom bap head-nod-ability (cumbia being one of the best examples, but gnawa, bossa nova and Balkan brass music are others), if you're going to remix it, it's best just to magnify the implicit elements which provide such rhythmic gravitas. That's what Orion does. The drum machine sounds (808's for the most part) are closely mapped to the original rhythms, but when those samples drop, they are both generically useful for DJs the world over and situationally excellent.

Download your own copy of DJ Orion's Carajo Colombia here - just name your price!

Podcast

raindrops - jackie shane (caravan)
window shopping - sharon jones & the dap-kings (daptone)
silky pete - john heartsman and circles (jazzman)
negus negast - the souljazz orchestra (strut)
into the wind - shawn lee & bei bei (ubiquity)
raw cuts #6 - motor city drum ensemble (faces)
velorio - hermeto pascoal (warner brothers)
incidental 2 - mike olson (henceforth)
doun doun/the crux - mutamassik (sa'aidi hardcore)
ammar - gaida (palmyra)
mal creada - dj orion (raw word)
seven - jean martin/jim lewis/andrew downing (barnyard)
far far west dub - lerobot (cccltd)
constant - j kenzo (scion)
hear me - martyn rmx by zomby (3065)
release the chains mix 1 - centry & the music family (conscious sounds)
the message - henry & louis (bsi)
do unto others - bush chemists (conscious sounds)
clear murk - dubloner (skor)
sobredosis de sabor - cumbiampiro (no label)
bionic skank - maxie (silver camel)
chant inna dance - lion youth (freedom sounds)
jah is coming (dub) - carl mcdonald (makdon)