A mixtape can be many things, but one thing is for sure, a mixtape is more than just random songs put in a particular order. It’s about recontextualizing sounds, giving them a new meaning (sometimes very different from the original) by setting them side by side, or juxtaposed in ingenious ways with others. Best thing about mixtapes, most of them are FREE (!), and they’re a great way to discover new music. In this column, Juan Data gives you a worthy one every week.
MIXTAPE: Party all the time!
DJ: Guaguis
For a time now I’ve been searching for recently released mixtapes or DJ sets done by Latinas, and let me tell you, they are pretty hard to find. Exactly six months ago we inaugurated this weekly column with a mixtape by Argentina’s First Lady of the digital cumbia scene, Alta Joya, but since then we’ve been featuring exclusively the work of boys on the ones-and-twos. The reason behind this is obvious: there are way more active male DJs out there than female ones—it’s just a statistical truth.
Now if you’re talking about Latina DJs, there’s probably no other like DJ Guaguis. We all know her as her alter ego, Ali Gua Gua, the singer of all-girl bands Kumbia Queers and Las Ultrasónicas. But besides being the ultimate punk-meets-cumbia riot grrrl pioneer, Guaguis has been active during the last three years in Mexico’s nightlife, hosting the Kumbia Knights parties.
I’ve been expecting to find a mixtape by DJ Guaguis for a long time and then she finally posted this DJ set a few days ago and to my surprise it didn’t have any cumbia or punk or Latin music whatsoever. It’s simply a techno house set recorded live (no post-editing here, a part when the beat goes off-sync was left untouched), aimed for the late night dancefloor (Party all the time!, it’s called). I guess it shows that Guaguis is more versatile than I expected.
I’d like to take the opportunity to encourage all other female DJs out there to share their mixtapes with us and all Remezcleros. Download Guagui’s Party all the time! below.