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 new column, Juan Data gives you a worthy one every week.
MIXTAPE: Concepto Mix #12
DJ: Raff
I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again. I think that DJ Raff is the best DJ in Latin America. I know that’s quite the hyperbolic statement because there are thousands of DJs of all different styles and you can’t really compare one to another to decide who’s really the best. Some are better at doing some stuff, others are better at doing other stuff. DJ Raff is the best one at doing the stuff I like. So for me, he’s the best.
Coming from the Chilean hip-hop underground, he started as a scratch DJ for the most relevant local artists of the ’90s: La Pozze Latina, Tiro De Gracia, Makiza, and Panteras Negras. During the past decade however, he experience an unprecedented growth in international exposure when he started producing beats and releasing them under his own name. Leaving behind the restrictions of rap music, he embraced a wide variety of sounds that could be cataloged as abstract, trippy, experimental or glitchy. His free-to-download Traveling Partners series are a must.
Now residing in cosmopolitan Barcelona, Spain, Raff has been indulging in even more experimental stuff, shown in his latest released mixtape, which he did for a Spanish radio station. Technically perfect in detail, his mixes are always like a lesson for me, but I guess they can also be enjoyed as beautiful ambient music by those who are not necessarily turntablism nerds.
Download DJ Raff’s Concepto Mix #12 and take notes.