Photo by Troy Brooks
Née: Sound manipulator Gerardo Salazar
Raíces: Los Ángeles, California. Currently residing in Guadalajara, México.
Sounds like: If prog rock musicians attempted to make their art with samplers, and wanted to make you dance instead of dazzle you with their skills.
You should listen to MNVG because…he will bring footwork and other styles to the next level.
There’s a revolution happening on Mexican dancefloors, and the characters leading it are mostly coming from far-away cities, instead of Mexico City. You have Siete Catorce and Trillones from Mexicali, TYU from Nayarit and Niño Árbol from Guadalajara; all of them are breaking the rules of making very inspired electronic music. Add MVNG to the list of exhilarating innovators.
Gerardo Salazar is originally from LA but has been residing in Guadalajara, where he not only is active on the bass scene but has also participated with some of the cities’ most prominent experimentalists like .RR. He is part of the SsenSorial Crew (along with Niño Árbol, Tyu and Trillones), and he has also released stuff on the PYRA.MD record label, the most recent of which is the Trust Your Struggle EP, an incredible and hazy collage.
MVNG has been practicing footwork (even dedicating a mix to the late godfather of the style, DJ Rashad) as well as juke, appearing front row and center on the Conexión Juke México-Japón Vol. 1 compilation. His tracks often showcase glitches, odd tempos, and unexpected turns that reminds me of jazz fusion greats of the seventies like Mahavishnu Orchestra; although this might be a sign of his masterful use of his gear rather than an approximation of their virtuoso approach.
He often takes regional sounds to sample into his tracks. A case in point is “El Chapo Kush,” where he samples Los Tucanes de Tijuana; the end results sound like next level Nortec.
You should not miss his work as Gerardo is sure to produce more tracks in the future that will exponentially blow minds across the globe.
Check out MVNG’s Soundcloud page, and his Trust Your Struggle EP below.