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: Los Chicharrons Mixtape
DJ: Mixticius
I don’t know exactly how it happened, but we haven’t posted a single mixtape by a Colombian DJ on this weekly column since we started it over six months ago. We introduced you to plenty of DJs from Mexico, Spain, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, even one from Uruguay, but no Colombians. OK, Quantic you could say is Colombian by adoption, but I’m talking real Colombian here.
So here you have it, DJ Mixticius, who’s apparently quite active in Bogotá’s nightlife playing his selections of Afro-Latin soul and global tropical beats. He has plenty of great mixtapes available for FREE download on his Web site, but my personal favorite is the one he did focusing exclusively on Los Chicharrons, a DJ/producer duo of Dominican/Danish descent, who play mostly afro-beat and other pan-African delights.
The 35-plus-minute long mixtape plays great as a cohesive piece, as if you were listening to a live concert by Los Chicharrons without making any pauses between songs, so it’s all voodoo-trance dancing from beginning to end.
BE ENTRANCED BY MIXTICIUS’ LOS CHICHARRONS MIXTAPE.