DJ: Maracuyeah
MIXTAPE: Maraculeando Con Amor
This is one of those leave-all-your-preconceptions-behind kind of things. There’s no other way to enjoy it or even understand it. With their second mixtape, Maracuyeah – two DC-based DJs – seem to be claiming the throne as the indisputable queens of the Latin lowbrow. But they don’t just do it for shock value, hipster’s irony or social commentary (although there’s a lot of that, I’m sure), their main goal is always to keep the dance-floor packed.
During its hour-plus length, Maraculeando Con Amor covers pretty much every genre of Latin American trashy dance music – from basic reggaetón to cumbia villera to tribal guarachero to just flat-out kitsch one-hit-wonders and other bizarre translated covers of questionable taste (Proyecto Uno doing “Groove is in the heart,” ouch!). I mean, there’s even some Los Tigres Del Norte in there, and an insufferably stellar appearance by Susy Díaz, the Peruvian Cicciolina!
Of course it’s all tongue-in-cheek. Compared to their debut mixtape, the transitions have significantly improved, but there’re still plenty of abrupt switches, jumping all over the BPM spectrum. I don’t think their point was to make smooth mixes anyway, they’re just having some harmless, unprejudiced fun and so should you.