Your Mix Fix: Rüstico

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The word mixtape has plenty of different interpretations. It used to be that mixtapes were actually DJ sets recorded on cassette tapes, but with the coming of the digital music age, the name remained the same, but the definition expanded. Nowadays, people call mixtapes many different things, some of which are not necessarily mixed and most of which were never taped. Here we try to cover them all. In this column, Juan Data gives you a worthy one every week.

DJ: Rüstico
MIXTAPE: Rüstico B-Day Mixtape 2012

Rüstico started as a regular club DJ spinning house and techno, but then he traveled all over the world, from Spain, to Brazil, to Chile and back to his homeland Argentina. During all that living abroad, he kept absorbing global beats and incorporating them into his set. He currently lives in Mendoza, a very prolific scene where not only malbec wine is produced in abundance, but also a lot of exciting ñu-cumbia (Fauna, ElMayonesa, Super Guachín are all mendocinos), so the influences are evident.

As you may infer from the title, this is a mixtape he recently released to celebrate his own birthday. Not that there’s any birthday-specific themed songs in there, but as a DJ myself, when I DJ at my own birthday parties I have only one rule: I only and exclusively play songs that I like (meaning none of those I-hate-this-annoying-cheesy-track-but-people-love-it-so-I’ll-play-it-anyway tracks). So, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that Rüstico here is selecting his playlist with the same criteria.

It’s a short mix but it accurately showcases the amplitude of his musical spectrum, including some bass-centric cumbia remixes, some Brazilian rap, a little bit of reggaetón and balkan beats, and of course some Fauna, all mashed up in a globalist birthday piñata of a mixtape.