Née: Rogelio Huerta
Raíces: Zacazonapan, Estado de México, México
Sounds like: 3Ball MTY, Javier Estrada, Daniel Klauser, A Tribe Called Red, Waya Waya, and Sunsplash
You should listen to DJ Rogelio Huerta because… you once were a Chicano protesting injustice and immigrant rights, and your misfit band of Aztlan loving activists friends would regularly invite Mexica Nahuali dance groups. With every step, you always wished somebody would mix that two-step call on the ancients with your favorite electro-house and tropi-dub sounds.
Those 3ball kids are all the rage. They’ve been featured everywhere imaginable, and Remezcla can’t get enough of them. El Estado de México isn’t really the most accommodating place for music to spring up, but we suppose the suburban sprawl of one of the largest, densest cities in the world would be the perfect breeding ground for a young DJ/producer.
With plenty of bored kids needing to dance off that excess energy in clandestine parties sparked about the province, our mysteriously clouded subject emerges. Not much has been written about DJ Rogelio Huerta aside from this initial Generation Bass post, with the release of his free album. You might be sick of the moombahton, jungle bass influenced dance craze supposedly started by Dave Nada (David Villeagas) in Washington, D.C., but we still dig it, especially when there’s new faces and new names to harold.
Producing since he was 14 years old, the kid is barely 18 now, but calls upon an ancient and mystical tradition that’s not all too uncommon. The Mayan and Aztec mix, the indigenous bug has bitten deep into the contemporary trends and we couldn’t think of any better way to honor those roots of the mestiza culture. Through dance and celebration we all find connections to our origins, whether pale skinned or brazenly brown, you’ll get a kick out of these flutes and drums.
“Alpaquitae,” featured on Mad Decent on of the hardest tracks featured on El Imperio EP (3Ball Prehispanico), you’ll find interesting parallels to A Tribe Called Red and Javier Estrada‘s masterful fusion of past and present. Not enough can be said about the pan-American indigenous consciousness afoot. So, without treading too heavily over those lost and forgotten folks, that sometimes negated, subjugated and denigrated part of ourselves, lets just hope this music stands as a testament to the vibrant and actual, the lived and felt reality of the native community at large.