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 juxtapozed 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: Moombahton Massive Mix
DJ: Sabo
Unless you’re deep into DJ culture and/or an avid follower of blogs dedicated to this particular segment of the music market, you’ve probably never heard the word moombahton (yeah, it took you a while to pronounce that initially, right?). Thing is moombahton (damn! I always have to double-check the spelling) was like the hot buzz word of 2010.
Moombahton (it came out right this time) is a new dance-floor-oriented genre that combines mid-tempo house music with the ubiquitous reggaetón beat known as dem-bow. If Latin house wasn’t Latin enough for you, well, this might be it. They basically replaced the traditional four-on-the-floor disco beat that distinguishes house music (and most commercial dance music, too) with a faster version of the dem-bow, focusing on the unlimited dance potential of this catchy beat, while getting rid of all the cheesy, radio-friendly singing and pseudo-rapping.
The genre’s own mythology points at Dave Nada as the creator (at least he’s the one who came out with that unfortunately silly name), but I’ve heard many people doing similar things before him, one of them being New York’s own DJ Sabo. Recently Sabo and Nada collaborated on a Moombahton Massive EP and Sabo made this mixtape (Moombahton Massive Mix) to help promote it. It’s almost an hour-long ride with the repetitive dem-bow beat averaging at 110BPM, mixed with plenty of different stuff, from Brazilian baile funk to cumbia to early ’90s house.
Will moombahton be the next big thing in Latin dance music? You decide.
DOWNLOAD DJ SABO AND DAVE NADA’S MOOMBAHTON MASSIVE MIX BELOW.