Just before hitting the stage at their first-ever “Barrioteca Rave” via Red Bull Music Academy‘s 2015 NYC festival, Que Bajo?! party resident DJ and producer Uproot Andy has dropped a Barrioteca EP. Some forty years after Fania took Harlem’s jazz and funk to another level via salsa, Uproot Andy is cooking up his own bricolage approach – a Puerto Rico by way of the Bronx sound some Colombia thrown in.
“Barrioteca” is a hard-edged trap banger with a sweeping bassline and pulsating synths that signals the evolution of Que Bajo?! from underground scene to a bigger nightlife movement: this is a song made to be played on a state of the art sound system in a big ass club. “Arroyo En El Barrio” is pure salsafied trap, cumbia’s sweep meeting with the track’s jazzy feel to create a refreshingly soulful groove. But Uproot saves the best for last, a remix of traditional Colombian folkloric cumbia band Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto’s “Manolo.” This song is why you’re an Andy fan. He’s probably in the 1% of producers worldwide who could take this track and create remix that flexibly works as both a deep house track and a cumbia edit, too. It’s fantastic.
Download Uproot Andy’s Barrioteca EP here.