Deerhunter @ Neumos
While Latin American rhythms have always been prevalent on the American dance floor, the latest harbinger of this movement would have to be Diplo and his Mad Decent label. So it makes sense that it is through the Mad Decent podcast where I first heard of Zizek Urban Beats Club, a DJ collective from Buenos Aires, and their brand of Cumbia-infused dancehall bangers. Cumbia, at it’s essence, is a traditional beat found in the folk music of various countries in Central America, namely Colombia, with versions popping up in Panama, Peru, and Argentina as well. The latest trend in Cumbia, brought to Nectar last Tuesday, gets all the requisite updates, mainly by an infusion of electronic and dance music from all over the world. Warming the crowd up with a live performance, Fauna played a set of their favela-fueled, almost grimy, hip-hop, then it was up to Oro11 to keep the dance floor moving. Oro started off slow, allowing the rolling Cumbia beat to take hold before heating up, drawing in the crowd by mixing in American hip-hop, reggae, Baltimore club, and even the Berlin techno of Modeselektor. I don’t suspect it will be long before the remixes of the Zizek crew reach the digital record crates of DJs around the world.
Last night, Fremont played host to another South American dance party, this time from up and comer’s Telepathique, from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Playing to a surprisingly decent sized crowd on a Wednesday night, Telepathique offered up a nice showing of big-beat charged, electro-tinged rock-outs. The beats, provided by a spastic Erico Theobaldo, literally running between his drum kit and his turn table, were smartly tempered by the cool, measured voice of front woman Mylene, who, on stage, reminded me of a mellow Karen O, a slightly exaggerated projection of her musical influences. Playing a remarkably long set for a band that has yet to release their debut album, their live sound seemed to be more in tune with the groups influences in late 60s Brazilian psychedelia (Gal Costa comes to mind) than what I expected from the few songs I have heard smattered across the blogs in the US. Their debut album Last Time on Earth hits US shelves August 5.