Your Mix Fix: Mati Zundel (AKA Lagartijeando)

By  Isabela Raygoza

Your Mix Fix: Mati Zundel (AKA Lagartijeando)

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: Mati Zundel (a.k.a. Lagartijeando)

MIXTAPE: Chuchaki Afro Cumbiamberos Mixtape

An indefatigable traveler himself, Mati Zundel enjoys taking his listeners to unexpected sonic landscapes, jumping erratically from location to location, stoping at small towns most tourists would skip, and sharing some mate with the locals. His DJ sets are not meant to be played for a crowded dance floor at a club, but to be listened on your headphones while you travel on a bus from Northern Argentina to Brazil, passing through Bolivia. Why not taking a detour to Colombia?

Signed to ZZK Records, Mati Zundel started releasing futuristic ñu-cumbia a few years ago under the hard-to-pronounce alter-ego of Lagartijeando. But when the time came to release his solo album in 2012, he decided to sign it with his real name (in part to make things easier for all them gringos) and to expand his repertoire way beyond cumbia.

The roadtrip mixtape starts in a familiar location, with a track from his album, Amazónico Gravitante (available in Amazonico Gravitante - Mati Zundel), but from there it travels all over the Southern half of the continent. Unlike his previous mixtape featured on this column that focused more on the sounds of the Altiplano, this one crosses the Mato Grosso and reaches all the way to the Brazilian coastline, maybe suggesting the destination of his next backpacking trip.

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