On the heels of his Fall release of Amansara, Argentine producer/DJ Chancha Via Circuito will be playing a couple of showcases at SXSW this week, starting tonight at Elysium. Brush up on your Chancha knowledge before his sets with this kick off of our Essential Facts/Essential Tracks series, showcasing the artists we’ll be covering at this SXSW 2015.

ESSENTIAL FACTS

Known as: Trance-inducing, futuristic cumbia master Pedro Canale.

Background: Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Sounds like: His 2014 return to the scene after a three-year hiatus stays being one of our favorite records (just in case its multiple appearances on our Best Of lists weren’t an indication enough). Chancha‘s full-length on Nickodemus’ excellent Wonderwheel Recordings was his first departure from his previous home at cumbia digital label ZZK. The solitary time revealed itself to have a precise purpose: building an intricate sample bank of field recordings drawing from experiences like his excursions into jungles across the continent and live sessions with the likes of Miriam García and Lido Pimienta, completely avoiding any repurposed sampling– a lesson learned, perhaps, to sidestep any copyright infringement issues for the worldwide release. The final product, Amansara, is a transcendent take on Latin America’s rural folkloric traditions filtered through the minimalistic electronic processing of Canale.

Why you should see his showcase: I can tell you that Chancha is the real deal, but it’s worth going to see him perform live to believe me. Chancha is the ultimate bird call sampling sonidero dream, manipulating his record releases into a dub cumbia format that will make you lose yourself in the composite jungle of his creative rendering.

ESSENTIAL TRACKS

SXSW SETS

Tuesday, March 17
10:00PM – 10:40PM
Elysium

Thursday, March 19
12:00AM – 12:40AM
Russian House