"MI Vallenata" Policarpo Calles - Dj Javier Estrada RMX #SOTD

This tune can stop someone from jumping off a bridge Tune!!!!

"Wine" Baby Cham - #SOTD

Summer Vibing...

"Schiztophonia" - Killawatt and IPman - #SOTD

It's been a while, and I missed you all... so I brought you a song to make it better... It's been a crazy last two months for me, so I appreciate your support!

"Coming in Good" DJ Hype - #SOTD

TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THIS SONG!! Class-sick Chhooooonnnn!!!!

John Talabot "So Will Be Now..." #SOTD

Of course I gotta say Rest In Peace to the Godfather of Go-Go, Chuck Brown, as well as the Queen of Disco Donna Summer. Both represented somewhat marginal and niche-specific subgenres, indicating the sophistication and intimacy that can be created by a community of producers and musicians. 

Maybe later I'll write about it. But my mood is more into this track by Spanish producer John Talabot... who obvious owes a huge debt to Summer and Moroder for making this tune possible; a nice, sexy, bounce House track.

Domino "Getto Jam" #SOTD

Who remembers this one!?!??! A "guilty pleasure" during the good ol' 1993 G Funk Era, ha!

Soap Dodgers "Belly" - #SOTD

Funky and Dread----y...

Kwes "Bashful" - #SOTD

Pretty damn good pop music if you ask me...

"We Invited Pun" - 2DEEP #SOTD

This song cranks!!!

"el gran vacilon" - Los Master Plus #SOTD

Oy, this song kills for the fact they dare use the Dr. Dre sample in there, PLUS!! the Run-DMC "It's like that" orchestra stab... otherwise, this song is shit!

"Air" (Main Mix) - Various feat. Asher Dust #SOTD

I have a Facebook where I post #SOTD (Song of the Day) ---- I want more traffic to #AP... so I'm moving them here, showcasing new songs, or songs I haven't heard before, that stand up to my Pupusa standard... enjoy the first! A strong Horace Andy kinda Dubstep choon...

Eyes on Africa -- musical selections and walking that line of liberated or colonized

My attention has moved towards the DJ and Soundsystem music found throughout Africa. What drives me to enjoy the music is the design of riddms and that carry away from Western dance vibes. Yet I'm also fascinated that many artists and labels walk the tightrope of sounding way too Western with Golden-Era, Dubstep, and House beats used on their tracks... sounding like U.S. rappers with accents. But the tear becomes that many of the same acts drop some very unique drum and riddim patterns, utilizing isms that are not found in the rest of the world. 4/4 beats are hidden underneath polychromatic drums, bright synths used in the West are utilized differently, and rapping is found throughout. 

I'm sure there are more traditional sounds to juxtapose, and other nu-skool African soundsystem musics, such as Congotronics, place their epicenter much closer to traditional African structures. In that respect, DJ/Soundsystem artists become part of a larger tapestry that we on the outside cannot really work out, grounding their more Western flows in the same tradition as Ricky Martin and Shakira are still "Latin Music" despite their soaked uber-West vibes. I'm a fan of the interloper and the catalyst... so I'm fascinated by where folks in the Root's OkayAfrica stand. It's sort of like the Roots' version of Diplo's Mad Decent. The question then arises about the relationship between Black Americans and Black Africans. At one moment, its seems logical, other times the problem of cultural imperialism and Western culture (which arguably is embedded in the U.S. Black experience) sticks out to me. I'm not sure how this works... but I'm thinking it runs along the same lines in the Caribbean and Latin America... 

I encourage you take a look at a few of my favorite finds below. They promote more of my style of musical boundary pushing next-level soundsystem music. I highly suggest you start with OkayAfrica's soundcloud for excellent mixes.

Get to know: Munchi

You take one part Luney Tunes

and take 1 part Aphex Twin

Then you get this...

Fall in love again with Nina Sky "Day Dreaming"

They are open minded with some nu-school riddims in play behind them. This one has a dubstep-meets-timbaland thing going... and it works alright with me!

Nu School Latino from Maga Bo and World Hood

Two tracks I'm REALLY digging right now.. showing the innovation and reign that Latino Tropical, Bass, DJ music is doing right now... killing!First up, this organic Afro-beat DJ riddim with killer lyrics to match. and this lovely bass driven track

Harmonimix = James Blake = I want these tunes

 

ALL POST-EVERYTHING!!

My Favorite Music, Styles, and Things of 2011

 There was just way too much good stuff going on this year. I enjoyed a lot of Hip Hop again, I found a wonderful wonderful sense of home and place with the rise of all this glorious bass music coming from a Latinidad context, more importantly a non-western one. I'm pretty much off the Dubstep bandwagon after the Skrillex takeover, but have enjoyed some great stuff from Nasty FM (my new favorite UK Bass station) as well as a lot of Future Garage and post-Dubstep stuff. Its been a good year as I got a fulltime job and am back at making my own beats. Big things to come and Bass music is in good hands right now as there are not particular genres overshadowing, lots of experimentaiton, cross-pollination, and plenty of ass shaking to do.

So, what I've done this year is comment on the biggest trends and styles I dug this year. Within these, I rate specific artists, producers, or DjS who are murking and repping the style. Take a look and see what grabs ya.

Happy Holidays, New Year, and all that...

Biggest happening for AmericanPupusa 2011!!! - GLOBAL BASS/TROPICAL

Favorites: Nguzunguzu, DJ Javier Estrada, Munchi, Uproot Andy Honorable Mentions: Sabbo, Chanca Via Circuito, Daniel Haaksman

I had a lot of fun discovering music this year, particularly the wonderful Global Bass/Bass Music coming from Latinoamerica (which also includes the U.S.). This area has caught my attention for several reasons: it strongly connects my sense of Latinidad as hybrid music, its bass and soundsystem culture, but more importantly, it moved my thoughts on sampling, and in this case the use of "ethnic" sounds, to the transnational - a more congruent, non-exploitative, place.

This music adopts the cumbia basslines, dembow riddims, guiros, polyrythms, etc of our cultures, but doesn't lay them on top of traditional beats coming from the westernized traditions of Hip Hop, House, Dance, Trance, Acid, etc. Non-gringo beat patterns are used, traditional horn sections are replaced with bright synths, and drums are filtered and dirtied for soundsystem capacity. Its this ownership of who we are bleeding into production, arrangement, and samples, alongside a sense of free experimentation that makes Global Bass/Latino Bass so refreshing. What I also dig is that the Latino U.S. is included in this conversation, placing it closer on the transnational vibe.

It's hard to pick which producers or tracks stood out the most. Any given producer or DJ in this world will play and spin just about anything and everything. To pinpoint is to go against what I enjoy most about Latino Bass tracks. But if there was a producer(s) who epitomized that approach the most, it would be NGUZUNGUZU. Looking at their work, its straight bass music, it can flex in more traditional places, yet they are pushing boundaries and bringing elements together in an almost subversive fashion. I must add that I was completely impressed with Javier Estrada's work... even more experimental than NGUZUNGUZU, I am amazed at the amount of experimentation and fucked-upness he brought in to, what I see, is a a quite rigid genre of Norteño dance music.

Favorite - BEATS/INSTRUMENTALS

Favorites: Prison Guarde, Clams Casino, Lukid, Balam Acab

There were a few directions instrumentals went in my world. The first was to love your synth sounds and work them out on some electro funk boogie. The other was to dip your productions in some pads, ambient sounds, and atmospherics that took you to up to celestial levels. I'm quite surprised that Prison Guarde's Système Hermès has not received so much attention. I figure with soundcloud, band camp, and cheap technology - everyone is a producer and a lot can get thrown down the cracks, but this is almost offensive. It's playful, grand, funky, and fun. There are thoughts in the arrangements and you get swag along with electronic bits, which brings the best of all worlds together. Top tunes to check are "What you Need" their remix of the Weeknd's vocal tune, and "New Love/Old Girl"

Sometimes, what everyone else thinks is cool is alright by me. Clam's Casino must be the producer of the year for so many folks, and that is A O K. While more mainstream folks would consider Lex Luger holding that title, I think they both have a lot in common with those fluttering chopped hi hats and chopped and screwed legacy in there. Yet, Clams takes it on some high above the ground places, sounding like God's iPod and shit. With down and dirty folks like ASAP Rocky bringing that gutter, it makes it a great line to connect Hip Hop to its next-world/level capabilities that have been lost for many years.

As a producer, Lukid is dextrous. He flexes around the Hardcore Continnuum but provides a good dose of cerebral enjoyment through the medium of dance music. Its dope atmospherics are part of the "dark" legacy that Jungle and Drum and Bass brought, but postmodern with its range of BPM and riddim choices. He is Burial but on his own place and ideas... and its worth checking all his work. Finally, Balam Acab maybe coming and going, but I think he left an impression on me, showing that Burial can be a start towards a new direction, while being a legacy to our Jungle and DnB past.

Hip Hop 2011

Favorites: Calez, Danny Brown, ASAP Rocky

I took a better listen at Hip Hop in 2011. There was the same usual crap, there were the usual indies, and there were the usual internet/blog tunes that have just enough energy to catch my attention, but not enough juice to last the entire track. This year did bring some significant and full-hearted love for Hip Hop with Calez, Danny Brown and ASAP Rocky. Calez's "Middle Finger" has enough old school to touch on its legacy, but these elements are disregarded enough with simplistic production to make sure you understand that the rapper is young, fresh, and open. His mixtape has not 100 fantastic, but there are some gems. What I appreciate is that he has good use of his voice, word choice, and robust flow that makes him a solid solid rapper. 

On a WAY different level - Danny Brown brings back a different tradition to Hip Hop, of the classic toaster. Danny's delivery, words, subject matter, and beat selection all funnel towards that crazy, fuckec up, hardended, but cracked up ethos... all these wild elements are forced down into this basic center - feeling like a collision of elements to create energy of nuclear levels. He sounds rude and crude, and his beats match perfect... is that synthesis and unique delivery that makes the dude nice. 

And what more can I say about ASAP Rocky that everybody hasn't said.. I agree with most review and stories of this guy. ASAP carries the legacy now set with ODWGKTA, but rejects it as well - 'Fuck Swag' could just as much be a arm separating him from Tyler as much as the Swagger Like Us era of Jay-Z and Kanye. And, I hope he doesn't end like Wiz Khalifa.

UK BASS - Dubstep, Post-Dubstep, Future Garage, Grime

Faves - Machinedrum - Room(s) LP, Burial - Street Halo EP, King Midas Sound - "Goodbye Girl (Kuedo Rework)", Blawan - "Getting Me Down"

I don't think I was listening to much Dubstep this year. I have transitioned away from being a follower of the traditional "Hardcore Conntinuum" folks (Hip Hop/House to Rave to Jungle to UK Garage to Grime/Dubstep thing), moving to a Global Bass kinda guy, inclusive of the HC and U.S. dance genres. Even so, the UK are doing big things as always with Future Garage and Post-Dubstep exploits taking place. My hat is tipped to producer Jamie XX for killing it hard this year; being indie/dance with a Bass mindset, dropping some seriously unique music and mixes. He is as close as you can get to a white guy breaking out of the traditional modes of beat structures. Not too far behind is the bliss and clean beauty of Machinedrum, who ties all styles of UK Bass through filters and individuality to make some sweet sweet cuts of Footwork, Jungle, and other dirty-end dance.

For my honorable mentions, I was a bit worried about my hero Burial slacking and fading out, being that there is this post-Burial stuff from Alam Acab and others, but I can rock "Street Halo" all day, its fucking urban as shit and has that garagey/Goldie vibes that I dig.

R&B

The Weeknd - "Thursday", Frank Ocean - "We All Try"

Oh my oh my... I'm super impressed with The Weeknd and Frank Ocean! While the rest of the R&B kept on with its bright synths, BET/MTV sensibilities, and waste of time subject matter... The Weeknd's Thursday seemed to add dub-style productions to counter the clean productions from the  mainstream, used voice as instrument that bled with productions, and took the notion of 'the playa' to dirty dirty dirty depths. He tells you exactly how painful his torture is going to be, swooning you with dead flowers and poisonous chocolates... bringing out a bravado and confidence that he'll get you which pales everyone else. Absolutely amazing!

While "Novacane" caught everyone's attention, Frank Ocean impressed me with "We all Try." Ocean's songs have the same scripts as most, but you get a sense that he has a bigger thought in there, a social consciousness along with it. He was able to speak about things everyone else feels, but had no one to speak on them. My favorite line "I don't believe marriage is between a man and woman/but between love and love" also shows a bold independence that anyone else doesn't have the balls to get close to in mainstream/indie R&B.

ODDS AND ENDS

"Jess and Crabble Present Bazzerk," Traxman, Ballroom/Vogue

I could've told you that Kuduro was my number 1 genre of last year. I haven't slacked on it, but with all this stuff coming from the Latino Bass scene, it had to take a spot in the back burner. Even so, Ballzerk is an essential compilation. Going through each track, you see a how a genre transitioned from the "I'm just brand new, so we can do whatever we want" freedom to "We are mature now, but we got the tools and skills to keep pushing forward." Its a few steps away from formula and complacency, but for now, the choice of snares, arrangements, and fucked up samples make it so juicy and ass shaking!

Otherwise, I still dig the sounds from the Footwork/Juke Chicago school of thought. Since Footwork broke into all these other dance scenes (Danny Brown, Addison Groove, Machinedrum, etc etc etc) I took a look back and found some of the true school gems, in particular Taxman, that sound fresh and raw, which reinterpretations and upgrades to mainstream status cannot touch still. Juxtapose this with the Vogue/Ballroom stuff that is happening now in NYC, where Diplo has put his mitts on, and its a wait and see of where this genre will go. For now, we have some glimpses inside, and it looks quite appealing with its gay-black-urban swag, industrial sounds, and don't give a fuck approach to production and arrangements.

Presentando Maracuyeah! Bringing you the mixtape style, throwback vibes, and Latino soundsytem culture for a just Washington D.C.

Dj rAt and Dj Mafe

Maracuyeah! is a collective of transnational, global, local, DIY activists, artists, DJs, and music promoters presenting the “now” in upfront soundsystem/DJ culture in Washington D.C. They spin underground DJ music from Latin America – Cumbia Electronica, Tribal, Dembow, Tropical Bass, with dashes of old school Latino pop. Officially starting in March of 2011, Maracuyeah! also put on shows of local and international musicians such as Chancha Via Circuito, Permnet, Zuzuka Poderosa, and El Freaky, who bring innovative takes of contemporary Tropical music. Their sets and shows are mixed and jumbled together in a classic (cassette) mixtape style. And, the venues they play out in are purposeful and grounded in social consciousness. 

A great example of this vision was a recent party at D.C.’s Velvet Lounge, where they dropped underground DJ music, classic Latino pop, with an intermission of a live mariachi in honor of Dia De Los Muertos. This mindful pairing of the cutting edge with old school classics brings familiarity, people, and sonic experiments together in ways that are both nostalgic and new. 

DJs rAt and Mafe sat with Sara Acevedo and myself at Restaurant Judy, one of their local favorites, and the venue for their next party on December 15, located a couple blocks north of U and 14th street.  Our conversation focused on how Maracuyeah fills in the gap of Latino music in Washington D.C., how the mix of modern and old school creates a sense of freedom during their parties, the creative process behind their sets and shows, and building community. To help gain a better understanding of their mezcla style, rAt and Mafe were kind to provide a playlist mix to listen while you read this!

Maracuyeah! creating space from the new and old

I want to know about your work in DC, find out about your creative process, and talk about other journalists' fascination with you and “la mezcla.” How Maracuyeah mashes up things is what resonates strongly with people the most. Do you think that is what you are about, or is it something else you are about?

DJ rAt: I was just at someone’s house who we met through Marcuyeah. She saw a flyer on the street and came to one of our parties, and we met on the dancefloor. And she was saying something similar to what I hear from people often which is that which she says “I like these parties cause oftentimes I go and it’s couple dancing and people kinda doing their own thing, and I like that at your parties you can meet other people, and people are kinda more open”. And that fact that I met her [there] and we’re friends now, and it came out of this flyer off the street is really exciting to me. And she was like “yeah, you guys do this awesome thing with Maracuyeah” and I was like “its not really us, its everybody who comes and builds this movement together.

Both of us [rAt and Mafe] are coming from a background of community organizing. To us it’s a natural extension of that. But it’s also what we see and what we do is really community based. It wouldn’t be anything if the two of us, or the five of us who DJ, just came together and played music in the room that we thought was cool, it’s literally built up by the people. And what I was noticing in our last party, the Day of the Dead Party that we played a lot of different music, especially in the first few hours, people were kinda warming up, and getting comfortable, and it was a one-room dancehall kind of affair. And it was really neat that you can tell the people who were super into your classic Cumbia, and they would come with their bottle and something to tap on it… but then we would play the 80s synth stuff, those same people… stuck around and went with it. And seeing people vice-versa who were into that 80s stuff or new electronic stuff were open enough to get into other types of music.

Restaurant Judy in U street

So for me that’s an inspiration for people like that who come to our parties because I’ve been looking for people like that in D.C. since I moved here. And this has lead me to more people. And that is what DJing is about, it’s meeting of the minds, opening up community, and building of power and community, its actually very political for me, and I think for both of us, and its such an inspiration to meet such amazing folks through our parties. And I give a lot of credit to people for building what we’re doing, it’s not only the two of us.

So you call it a movement, and you have a political grounding to it. How would you describe this movement? Movement is a big word.

DJ rAt: It is a big word… for me, I say movement because dancefloors are depoliticized and they are some of the most powerful spaces that we have, so more than Maracuyeah. I belong to another DJ collective called “Anthology of Booty” and like Mafe said, we work on radio together, and we have a project called “DJ Geek Out” all of that is being like ‘culture is political, our bodies are political, our identities are political, and social spaces. I think often, social spaces are depoliticized in a way that… they really deserve a lot more credit for bringing people together and crossing lines and building power.

So you think a rave with all these glowstick bodies are depoliticized?

DJ rAt: I think it is. I think you are in charge of your own body on dancefloors. I think, as we were talking before the interview, music movements come out of poverty, social dynamics, they come out of necessity, and I think people have to carve that out, it’s not easy… having the right to assemble and move and join together, yeah, it’s a struggle and its something that people had to work hard for, we built on that also. It’s not the only thing… politicizing dancefloors is not our mission [laughs], our only mission. But I say that because I think that’s why I DJ.

DJ Mafe: I wanted to speak to the mixing and remixing – that’s our generation, all the friends I grew up with, we all came [to the U.S.] around the age of fifteen, our lives is a mix between what we heard in Colombia what our parents listened to, what we heard here, getting into the punk scene, and now trying to bring all these things together, right? It’s like, we love the Rock en Español, pero tambien nos gusta a bailar, por que no hemos cansado de la Salsa, so how are we are all putting together a party that we like, and that is what we play right?

I wanted to go back to what you are talking about, you are making a forceful action to designing an environment to be the way you want it to be even if its for three or four hours.

DJ Mafe: But the way that I want it to be, the way that… I think, yunno, coming here to the United States is like a shock culture with the American culture. As a recent immigrant it’s figuring out how you fit in the American culture, or Latina culture, or Colombian… I think the mixing up of all this is what I feel like my life is here.

I feel like there is power in what you do. I feel that you have a sense of responsibility, social responsibility that you are dictating to a certain level of what is going in the room, do you see it that way?

DJ Mafe: I think I do, its what’s [DJ rAt] is mentioning, a political dancefloor right? Like we’re not just trying to keep people happy but introduce to new sounds, to old sounds that they have maybe before have seen us, like I dunno “pueblo” or whatever, or “curcio” who listen to that!? And then seeing all the connections.

Music selection and dissecting the mashup

Can you tell me how you choose songs? When you do a big party, do you think “these are ten songs I really want to play tonight” or how do you go about the DJ set.

DJ Mafe: I think I have kind of a set idea of what I want to play. Some Cumbia Electronica, some I really like things that remind me of my childhood, so like Calo or Miguel Bosé just things that my friends post in youtube that are like “damn! That’s old, let me play it cause yunno it reminds you of like a time, like back home where you are.” And I feel that’s nice, when you are in a party right, “yeah I haven’t listened to this in so long!” And then just trying to bring new artists too, I tried to bring like Jepe, new artits, or Pedro Piedra, people that are kinda of doing that, mixing the old with the new.

When you make those choices, especially with the artists that you bring in to perform, who are you thinking about, who is your imaginary audience?

DJ rAt: I think what Mafe is saying has resonated with a lot of people. It’s like people who like all of these genres that are happening, but are maybe not as excited to making a 4 hour commitment to one genre for a night. To me that shouldn’t be so alternative, yunno? like mad respect! I have spent like, and we laugh about this because one of us likes Bachata more than the other [laughs]… I mean I have spent whole nights dancing… super feliz to Bachata. There are some amazing joints here in DC that are beautiful beautiful culture. But I think also, in those places I’ve met people who are down to run across town and dance to something completely different. So I think providing that in one night does resonate with people.

When you bookend something from 1986, and you remember seeing it in MTV en Español next to some underground new school Cumbia track… I’m forced to think ‘why did they do that?’ ‘why did they go from that song to that song?’ that’s the question I have in my head… “why?!”

DJ rAt: It’s really cool because what I feel that all of what we do is draw connections between stuff that a lot of times… like we DJ with a lot of awesome people, and somehow I’d like to give a shout out to all of them individually in this interview. People focus on us, but we are not actually the only people in Maracuyeah. We do the booking, a lot of logistics and organizing. But beyond the folks that come to our parties and everything. DJ Bent is somebody who really is involved and collaborated in many projects of our lives, she has DJed in almost every Maracuyeah party and helps with a lot of the day-of logistics and publicity, promoting and stuff.

testing the dancefloor

So who is Maracuyeah, are they just two DJs?

No, that’s kind of one thing with short interviews, it kind of collapses everything too much. Maracuyeah really grows out of our relationship to lots of DJs and musicians in the DC area. Because we haven’t been around that long, we don’t even have the language to talk structure, because it is so collaborative. And the way we work with people is almost like family. But DJ bent is somebody who’s been involved, and one of our other friends Michael, volunteers to do the door every time. The event couldn’t happen if he didn’t come and do that, and he is the cornerstone of Maracuyeah, helped us out on our website. We do a lot of the booking, but we DJ together as a bigger family, and then there even a bigger family of people who sweat and come and break up their day and inconvenience themselves, and put a lot of heart.

That’s very refreshing, especially with this kind of music, sometimes I think its very deceptive to certain people, with Hip Hop in particular, you talk to a DJ who is supposedly socially conscious, but they end up being star jaded jerks. It’s like your selling social consciousness versus being social conscious.

DJ rAt: It’s disappointing, when you feel like something has a lot of heart and then the representative doesn’t have a lot of heart. One thing that I can say about our event is that I think they are really personal, they are very sincere, they are very personalized, and its because we are working with people we really love. We are setting up, and breaking down together, its lo-fi to the max.

Making moves in Washington D.C.

So tell me about the first time you put something together, I was reading your city paper piece and you started in March 2011… but you’ve already brought in names like Chancha Vio Circuito all the big people… so how did you go from zero to 100 so quickly?

DJ rAt: well one of it is that we already collaborated with an amazing community of people, and we had the infrastructure in terms of people power, at least to some extent. We know who to borrow equipment from and make a basic flyer. And now again, we have collaborations with friends on that too like DJ Yeko and DJ Underdog are both artists and DJs who understand what we are trying to do and are really down with it and have helped us, and collaborated with us with flyers. But also I think it speaks to the huge gap there was in this area, why isn’t Chancha Via Circuito already booked?

DJ Mafe: or like ?Que Bajo? Folks who have been doing their party for like three years.

DJ rAt: Yeah, like more in New York. Uproot Andy had his debut two months ago, here in D.C. and Geko [Jones] I think it’s his debut, he’s coming next month. But yeah, I think that does speak to the fact it just wasn’t happening. There are a couple of really awesome Latin booking folks, and we have them to thank for Bomba Esterio, Grupo Pelados,

You booked Bomba Esterio?

DJ rAt: No, we didn’t. But we have them to thank for bringing them to town, but there was just a few people and not the capacity to booking all the amazing acts that are coming to the United States. And it is a shame, we live on the east coast, every city is 45 minutes away from each other… DC, Baltimore, Philly, New York, Boston… We should really be leveraging that geographical closeness to be able to build a circuit. Not just people who are booking acts, but people who are into building spaces and building community, scenes. And we have, in our short time, already found people who are doing that in Philly and in Boston and New York, and we are excited to meet more people. So, it’s a long answer to your question, but it speaks to the fact that it wasn’t being done, there wasn’t really the capacity to cover everything that had happened.

… I was into ZZK records because I started DJing in Peru, actually when I was living there. Those were my first DJ gigs. And I was in Peru, and Mafe, we had talked about [Maracuyeah] going to New York to see Las Rakas… All the way there…

DJ Mafe: We drove the night, and came by in the morning

DJ rAt: …but we were like, how can this be? We were driving a rental care [laughs]. We were like “this is absurd!” This rental car, and us, can’t be our lives experiencing the artists that we love. After that, the opportunity came up. I think we saw on Twitter that Chancha was going on tour with El Jé. And she was like “it’s this much” and were like “let’s take the risk”, lets see what we can do.

Were you confident that this organizing was going to work?

DJ rAt: it was just a stab, we gotta try. We don’t believe that people should only be able to organize this stuff if they have a million dollars. The most we could lose is a couple hundred bucks and to us that is worth the risk. And it’s like what you said, people always make those kinds of statements of DC people, that DC has no art scene, that’s not true, that DC has no Latin underground. It’s also that we’ve met so many people that we never knew about, it’s been a learning experience for us to. Learning how to do like booking, which we hadn’t really done before, but its also really meeting all these other people! We are just so lucky.

DJ Mafe: One of the first steps we took that was really beneficial was; for the Chancha show, we went out two weeks in a row to every party that we knew or people who could be interested in the music, we just gave flyers inside the party and tried to talk to folks.  In my experience a flyer is just a reminder of a conversation you have. You have to conversations with people for them to know what the event is about and trying to get to all these things. For the Chancha show, we partied a lot! We partied a lot trying to get people out. And it worked out right? We met Patrick, who now collaborate with for Peligro Brothers.

I really appreciate what you do, because I would go to a Hip Hop party and be the only albino Latino guy there. Or go to a Rock and Español party and stand out there too…

Dj rAt: And I think what we are trying to do is create a safe space for folks to be really dorky and take risks. Just for us, it’s kind of like a risk. And hey, we are just going to try this. It’s also hopefully something that’s the space is infused with, because you don’t have to be an expert to dance at our parties, trying to experience new music, trying to start projects, start collaboration. 

In a weird way this reminds me of D.C. Go-go. It has its industry and it occasionally shows up on rap songs… outsiders of Go-go downlplay it, but it’s thriving and it’s big. Same thing with DC hardcore, for a while that was king, there was a scene here for a while, Ian MacKayw with 5 dollar shows – Go-go and DC Hardcore punk are two scenes that resonate strongly with me as a DC/DMV and to see it being applied to a Latino kind of aesthetic…

DJ rAt: and sometimes places are accessible, our space, I think every space can be more accessible. And I think that’s something we think about a lot. We switch venues a lot because we need to accommodate the artists we bring. Even if we had stuff where places had drinks for $7, $8, $9. We do think about it, and that is something that weights into our process. I think we would never do something in a place where you can’t wear sneakers to get in, but also we try and think of it like “we do a 12 dollar door, or figure a way to make a $7 or $8 door, and make it way more accessible to people. And we can do a place that has $4 beers or $10 beers, what does that mean as places? And that’s what we think about when we go out.

Maracuyeah in the future…

Is there are a market, area, group, or thought you want to bring into Maracuyeah kind of vibe yet that you are hunting for, or hasn’t shown up yet? Are you matching where you want to go?

DJ rAt: I think we were talking about a lot of collaborations, trying to figure out, trying to carve out a little more of what we want to do. But also staying true to that openness, is to not get into this niche that becomes static. I think its something that we want to be opening ourselves up. A lot of what we do is research, like we are really nerdy, we really like researching musicians, not like “aw, this track is hot, onto the next one” but kind of like “whoa, where are these peoples’ friends, how did they make that video on the roof?” Really getting in the flow. Part of that is just a huge learning experience, it’s like a music education project for ourselves and that’s what we like to share with other people.

Is there anything you wanted to add or say, any point you had ever wanted to make, like “I never really had a chance for people to hear this, so let me just say it now”.

DJ Mafe: The aspect being very specific of the places that we choose, just because of the changing demographics of the city. I think that comes into my political background, seeing how the city is changing, who is getting money, who is not getting money, how people are getting by now, or displaced, being very conscious about what you support, supporting family joints like this [referring to Restaurant Judy] like we were talking right now. Like you see two new businesses that are specific for a demographic... so how do we continue to supporting...

DJ rAt: yeah, I think it’s a vital part of what we do, just as we were meeting here through like awesome community of folks that we have…  I think also that we talked about doing in the future is joining forces with a lot of the awesome groups who are working specifically on specific issues in the city; community organizing groups, folks who are working on immigration, practices like secure communities - who are resisting that, or tackling that in lots of different ways. I think we have done that in a certain way, in two weeks we are DJing for CISPES, and it’s an honor to be asked by some of the community organizations to join in with them. I think something we want to think about is how to intentionally work with folks to take initiative in that process to. That is something we are interested in, its not as explicit, because of a depoliticized dancefloor, and its not as explicit or concrete as you might think but I think there are some interesting ways we can be doing that all the time. I think street art is also something that I’m really interested in as part of our project. So we met somebody who will just make it worth going out in the middle of the night and like take me out [laugshs]. Street art is really policed as a form of culture and I think that is a rather really important part of our project evidently, because that is how we made a lot of connections.

DJ Mafe: and supporting local artists in general… the different bands that we have met through the website.

Kibosé by María y José

Final tune of the night…

I have a silly question, because AmericanPupusa is named after food and you named yourselves after food, why did you name yourself after food?

DJ rAt: that was in the car, in the rental car! [laughs]

DJ Mafe: We thought, ‘we want to start booking, what can be a party name’. At least we have attraction to names, like fruit, things that can relate to other folks from our countries

DJ rAt: things you can only get from our countries

DJ Mafe: Maracuyeah, it’s a saying. In Colombia you say “yeah, maracuyeah!” its a little bit old school but a lot of people say it. “maracuya!!” like “fresa” - and we wanted to be it somewhat in Spanish too, so Maracuyeah can be a mix between English and Spanish, but it has a really Colombian meaning.

DJ rAt: yeah, and I was telling her it took me two years to come up with a email name that was bilingual, easy to pronounce in English and Spanish. So I think that... and its literaly a remix of a word.

Maracuyeah D.C. Shout outs:

Maracuyeah dj fam: dj bent, dj g-flux, dj yeko, dj bj, alex db, k la rock, brian senyo, wanako, Michael

Community support and collaboration with: Peligro Bros, Anthology of Booty, She Rex, Fort Knox Five fam, Dj Underdog, KestaDc, DJ Rainier, Judys Restaurant, Velvet Lounge & Radio CPR fam along with a bunch of amazing local community based organizations, and local acts like Goldin Girl Tribe, DC Mambo, ACME, Noon:30, KickoMan, our friends and all the amazing people in DC all over who we have met through this project!

Dj Mafe, me, and DJ rAt

[Check out Maracuyeah in action at their next event December 15^th at Restaurant Judy, where they will bring NY based DJ Geko Jones. You can find the Maracuyeah! Fan Page on Facebook, check their website maracuyeah.com. A special thank you to Sara Acevedo for making this happen and for the support!]

Introducing the new "New Thing" - Vogue, Ballroom, etc...

Another manifestation of the soundsystem culture. We got the usual elements; strong speaker based sounds, danceability, chatters/toasters/rappers screaming on top, and dancing. And again, its coming from the marginal, intersectional, and hybrid identity. Rooted in the ambiguous, Black, gay, trans, inter, whatveryoucallit, this is not new, its coming from the same social space where House and Disco began. There it's southern complement, Sissy Bounce. It's also reinterpreting the "Vogue" era of the 90s with a stronger, industrial sound. Chatters scream on top of clangy-metallic beats, in the same way as Fatman Scoop or DJ Kool for instance. The dancing is elegant, with a nasty smear of skanking and BBoying... elegant sex dance. There is some element of the cypher/circle as you saw in old-school Bboying, watching this vid reminds me of seeing D.C. Beat your Feet or Chicago

Zuzuka Poderosa - "Ai Voce Gosta" music video

Wow! This on BANGZ!!