Colombia's Meridian Brothers & the Mexican Institute of Sound got Beck to voice their single "Ritmo Babilonia" – check the clip.
Here's the scoop...
Mexican Institute of Sound (MIS) and Meridian Brothers join forces on Ruido Tovar, a cross-border collaboration that reimagines the tropical traditions linking Mexico and Colombia. Drawing inspiration from icons like Rigo Tovar and the psychedelic Mexican cumbia era, the project blends danzón, son, cha-cha-cha, and experimental electronics into a vibrant new language. MIS’s genre-bending electronic tropicalism meets Meridian Brothers’ avant-garde eccentricity, resulting in a sound that is both reverent and playfully distorted. Together, Camilo Lara and Eblis Álvarez pay tribute to decades of musical exchange while pushing tropical music into unexpected territory.
Get a copy of Ruido Tovar via Bandcamp right here here. Check out Mateo Rivano's animated clip for "Ritmo Babilonia" featuring Beck following the album tracklisting below.
Ruido Tovar by Mexican Institute of Sound & Meridian Brothers
Producer/composer and DJ Will "Quantic" Holland's dancefloor ready DJ Kicks set is out Friday with a release party at Phonox UK.
Here's the scoop...
Having worked and lived in the UK, US and Colombia throughout his 20-plus-year career, Quantic is an artist whose reputation has long been forged by his unique engagement and vibrant musical exchange with local scenes and cultures from across the world. His discography of electronic releases is vast, spanning two decades and ranging from solo productions and intimate collaborations to expansive ensemble projects. Under aliases such as Quantic, the Quantic Soul Orchestra, the Limp Twins, Flowering Inferno, Ondatrópica and many more, the multi-instrumentalist, DJ, composer and producer Will Holland has released over twenty studio albums as well as countless EPs and singles.
Now, Quantic pulls from his unparalleled, wide-ranging pool of musical companions for his DJ-Kicks compilation, which fittingly radiates friends and family energy. The mix bursts with unreleased exclusives and places the art of curation at its core, giving the listeners space to go and dig more of the songs and sonics which resonate the most. Will Holland includes a breadth of new material, including new music from Quantic alongside another of his other aliases Sobredosis.
Having made records together as Transgressors, he hails JJ from The Poets of Rhythm. Similarly, the drummer of London band The Heliocentrics, Malcolm Catto, played in the Quantic Soul Orchestra in the early 2000s, and the band’s fuzzy track features early on in the mix. The ties don’t stop there though. Having mixed his album ‘Bring Backs’, Holland welcomes Mist’s jazz instrumentalism onto his Kicks, followed by a whistling dance contribution from JKriv – ft. Gabriel Oliveira – with whom he spent his early days as bassist for New York live house ensemble Tortured Soul. Quantic also brings to the mix his Colombian contemporary Frente Cumbiero, with whom he formed tropical supergroup Ondatrópica.
As a selector often booked to play at sunset, Quantic channeled this energy into the mix’s pacing too. “I love when people suddenly realise they are engulfed in the night… and this mix does put you out into some pretty high tempos of bass music, dub and Cumbia.” Beyond raising profiles, the mix encapsulates Quantic’s tempo-changing DJing style which, over the past decade, has built him a strong community of fans. In regard to the compilation’s sonic journey, which likens the voyage to boarding a boat, he says “you’re going down a river and get off in a different place… it’s also a cool way to encapsulate, stylistically, what I’ve been up to as a DJ over the last few decades, while shining a light on people I admire”.
This DJ-Kicks is the latest instalment in Quantic’s ever-evolving artistic trajectory, an accompaniment to those moments when the gloaming disappears into darkness. An homage to an unparalleled artistic path within the dance music cosmos. Will Holland’s longstanding dedication to a full range of melodic and percussive expression alongside continued musical collaboration is what makes his edition of DJ-Kicks such a rare beauty.
Get a copy of Quantic's DJ Kicks 2LP directly from !K7 Records right here. Check the track listing below followed by a couple of tracks and a clip from an all-vinyl Quantic set at System in London last year.
Quantic DJ Kicks
A1 JJ Whitefield feat. bonnie behave - The Mind Is A Palace
A2 The Heliocentrics - Minimal Engagement
A3 Quantic - Dialect
A4 Alfa Mist - In My Defence
B1 JKriv feat. Gabriel Oliveira - Pifeiro Malandro
B2 Quantic & Sly5thAve - Twang
B3 Frente Cumbiero - Michilero
B4 Quantic - Theme From Selva (Remix)
C1 Quantic - Eko Eko
C2 Quantic - Motivic Retrograde (Live Version)
C3 Eblis Alvarez, Meridian Brothers - Un Grande Nubarrón Se Alza En El Cielo
