El Sonido: Con Mucho Gusto

This week in El Sonido we're going to focus on Colombia. I just visited the country for my second time, spending a week in Bogotá to attend a great music conference Resonancia Colombia, which is part of a bigger technology event Colombia 3.0. I spoke on a handful of music business panels, met a bunch of great peers from around around the globe and did my best to dig up as much new music as I could. Of course, I can't cover all of the great music that is coming from Colombia in this one blog post, but I'd like to highlight a couple show favorites and some recent discoveries.

First up is Quantic - a.k.a. musician, DJ and record producer William Holland - from Bewdley, Worcestershire. He's spent a large part of his life living and making music in Colombia both under his own moniker and with other bands, including the Colombian supergroup Ondatrópica that he spearheaded with Bogotá's Mario Galeano aka Frente Cumbiero. He stopped by El Sonido in 2014 with his band to perform tracks off of the album Magnetica, a favorite of mine from that year.

Probably my favorite discovery of my recent trip is Ságan, an amazing duo creating fresh, dreamy electronic pop. Though María Mónica Gutiérrez and Felipe Ortega Blanco have only been working together musically for a short time, the band is already creating quite a buzz around Bogotá, and other places as well. The perfectly minimal, astral seductivity keeps their first record Cada Célula in constant repeat mode with me.

Next up on my recent discoveries list is a group from Santa Marta, a coastal city which is mostly known for vallenato... and pretty much vallenato. I was surprised and excited to see a group of young people from the area making such wonderful psych rock. El Otro Grupo's "pop con ruido" is experimental, dynamic and raw, but neatly catchy. "La Otra Canción" is my favorite from their self-titled debut, but it's all worth digging into.

Monsieur Periné is a band I already play a lot, and I was happy to meet them in person during my last visit. I want to spotlight them here because their unique take on gypsy jazz, pop and swing with Latin instrumentation and styles is incredibly fun and not to be missed. They've recently released their newest album Caja de Música and you should most certainly give it a listen, as well as their last one Hecho a Mano. And if you get the chance, you have to see them live.

Another duo I discovered in Bogotá is Mitú. They just played here in Seattle earlier this year, but I missed their opening set for Bomba Estéreo so I'm glad I was able to catch them in concert a few times in their own country. It's handcrafted tropical electronic music with some incredible drumming that runs the gamut from dreamy to mindmeltingly frantic. Cool on tape, but transfixing live.

That's only a touch of what's happening in Colombia. To hear more of my favorites and recent findings check out the two mixtapes below which feature a wide array of genres from all over the country.

Thanks for listening. See you next time. paz.

Chilly hosts El Sonido every Monday night from 6-9 PM. Follow Chilly on Twitter and El Sonido on Facebook and Twitter.