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: Disco Replicante de Respeto
DJ: deMentira
Nowadays there are many discrepancies when it comes to defining what a real mixtape is, but the old-school formula remains the same: a cassette tape with a collection of songs from different sources mixed together into a cohesive set by a DJ. Of all the mixtapes that we’ve been featuring on a weekly basis in this column, this one here is the one that matches that traditional description the best.
First of all, Chilean DJ/producer deMentira apparently recorded this mixtape live, the way mixtapes used to be recorded before editing software came into play. Second and most importantly, he actually recorded the mixtape in two separate 30-minute sets, the way it would’ve been if it was released in cassette format, which (you might be too young to know) had two sides! To make the illusion of an original, old-school mixtape even more tangible, deMentira mixed in a lot of ’80s pop, funk, and rap.
As a side note, deMentira (who as a producer doesn’t sound much like ’80s pop except for his use of retro synths) recently released a FREE EP of his own original material named Chimpancé through Chilean netlabel Discos Pegaos and a remarkable remix of our favorite Chilean chanteuse Javiera Mena in duet with Gepe, also on that same label.