“Argentina” (Used 17 times)

SPIT is the latest work from Argentinian sound artist Sol Rezza, manipulating sounds sourced from lawn mowers and lakes, crickets and dogs, into strange sonic narratives. Take "Revolution as a Loop" (below), and experience the full 47-minutes here on FMA or at Sol Rezza's Radio-Arte. Be sure to use headphones, because SPIT was designed for not only designed for stereophonic listening, but selected for the first series of concerts in the Turbulence Sound Matrix, Steve Heimbecker's 64-channel surround sound system.

Sol Rezza is also half of Panz4 Troupé, a duo with Mexican multimedia artist Daniel Iván. Here's a video of Matar al Gato 2.2: Ekpyrotica as performed live at Mexico City contemporary art venue Laboratorio Arte Alameda:

The Ekpyrotica series deals with the idea of Ekpyrosis, proposed by the Stoic philosophers. They believed the universe is repeated after every "great year", and that this repetition is preceeded by the universe's destruction via a "conflagration" (read more)

Cumbia became popular in Colombia in the 50s, and its mix of indigenous and African rhythms quickly spread to the rest of the world. In the 70s, Peruvians introduced psychedelic electric guitar and renamed the music Chicha, while Mexican musicians added rock drums and synth to create Sonidero, and Argentineans introduced the Keytar to create Cumbia Villera. In the past 5 years, a worldwide cumbia resurgence has infiltrated rock, hip-hop and electronic music. From Monterey's rebajada to Buenos Aires digital cumbia, young musicians are recycling their grandparents' music and launching a global musical rebellion.

El Remolón -- the musical alias of Andrés Schteingart (aka Drole) -- specializes in a minimalist techno variation of the reinterpreted sounds of cumbia, mixing in the mroe contemporary sounds of IDM, reggaeton and dub. In 2006, Santiago Chile's Pueblo Nuevo netlabel released his Cumbia Bichera EP, along with remixes by four of the label's other talented artists, including founders Djef and Mika Martini. A couple tracks from the EP below, check the full thing here.

El Remolón is a key player in Buenos Aires' world-renowned ZZK collective. Founded in 2006 as the Zizek Urban Beats Club -- a monthly party at the Voodoo Motel -- Zizek is now its own venue, host to genre-clashing global dance bills orchestrated by El Remolón along with founder El G, the MC/DJ duo Fauna, and the tropical dancehall DJ Douster.

ZZK Records launched in 2008 with the release of ZZK Sound Vol. 1: Cumbia Digital, a compilation featuring digital cumbia music from all over the world, including fellow Argentinian El Hijo De La Cumbia (pictured left / mp3 below from the Soot Records release Freestyle de Ritmos). The compilation, along with a host of free mixtapes, helped ZZK reach a worldwide audience and international collaborators including Diplo and DJ/Rupture, and Vol 2 was picked up for wider distribution by Nacional Records. The sound continues to spread through a summer tour, which included a stop at Coachella, and an online video project, ZZK TV, which you can help make possible through Kickstarter

Did you know that Tchaikovsky didn't like the score he composed for THE NUTCRACKER ballet? Yeah, for starters, he didn't even want the job. Evidently he made too many concessions for the ballet producers and didn't feel it was true to his original concepts and nowhere near as good as his last ballet score, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY.

Isn't that remarkable when so many movements from the composition are instantly recognizable classical masterpieces?

Now, let's say that more than 100 years later we give his score a Tim Burton - Danny Elfman - PDQ Bach treatment. Not talking HOOKED ON CLASSICS here; instead, reworking the whole composition and giving it some bounce, bleeps, bloops, and even more music box charm*. This is exactly what Lanark, our friend in Argentina, has done on MY RUSSIAN BRIDE, now available on the Free Music Archive. One can't help but wonder what the old boy Tchaikovsky would think of this reworking.

Lanark has a passion and a gift for reworking classical pieces. This is one of his earliest, if not the first, releases of his deconstruction and reconstruction of classical works. It is especially fun in winter when we are most likely to hear THE NUTCRACKER SUITE.

Here's hoping this charming little electronic music box from Lanark brings you joy this season and all year. [Download MY RUSSIAN BRIDE]