The Bottom Line
Pros
- "Brown Bus" is a glorious mix of vocal and instrumental innovation
Cons
- For traditionalists, this may not be for you
Description
- 15 tracks of Mexican music fused with electronica
- Featuring DJs Bostich and Fussible
- Released May, 2008 by Nacional Records
Guide Review - CD Review: Nortec Collective - Tijuana Sound Machine
There was a time when the term 'DJ' meant a person who selected a playlist and provided between track chatter. But over the years, that term has changed as DJs took the floor of discos and clubs and technology gave them tools to mix the music, looping it for longer non-stop dance action, synchronizing beats for seamless track transitions and adding special effects for fun.But today the term 'DJ' also applies to musicians whose instruments are computers, vocoders, synthesizers. They take snippets of familiar music, apply technology and create a sound that's reminiscent of the source yet wholly original and often unexpected.
When the source is Mexican Regional music - the widest selling Latin music in the U.S.- and the DJs are the Nortec Collective, the result is a high-energy, blast-to-the-brain album that's hard to resist.
Tijuana Sound Machine is the 3rd album by the Nortec Collective, although this album was created by just 2 of the band members, Bostich (Ramon Amezcua) and Fussible (Pepe Mogt). With this album they've added lots of acoustic elements from the instrumental repetoire of the norteno and banda genre to the standard mix to digital tools: blaring brass, blazing accordions, bajo-sexto and even the addition of the clavichord.
Some of these tracks are trance inducing, but most are actually something that will make you get up and dance (not as common as you might thing with this genre). "Brown Bike" is my favorite, with its chorus of "It's funny how things work out", a multitude of instruments (including the unexpected clavichord) and a children's choir, though, "Mi Casita" and "Mama Loves Nortec" are close behind it. I can't believe there's not a real tuba player behind those tracks.
