City Sounds: Bogotá

In Beats We Trust

When British producer Richard Blair moved to Colombia in 1992 he landed bang in the middle of a Bogotá sonic revolution. And he played no small part in that boom - as a rebirth of vallenato took off he produced a hit album for Carlos Vives (La Tierra del Olvido). And as a new generation embraced Afro-Colombian rhythms he was in the studio with veteran cumbia queen Totó la Momposina. But it was Blair’s Sidestepper project that really caught the moment, fusing salsa, cumbia, dub and electronica in a mix that felt completely right and turned out to be so massively prescient. In 1995 Rock al Parque was launched by the city’s Culture and Tourism Institute. It has since become the biggest free rock festival in Latin America (this year it topped 300,000 people) and one of the most influential when it comes to new sounds. By the time Sidestepper released 3am: In Beats We Trust (produced with Ivan Benavides in 2003) the Bogotano new music rocket had really lifted off. The core of musicians active in those heady days have gone on to become some of the standout names in new Colombian music right now, including Bomba Estereo, Chocquibtown and Pernett.

Sidestepper - Deja

Andean laboratory

Sitting 2700 metres above sea level, at the foot of the Western Cordillera in the Andes, Bogotá is a buzzing city of 10 million inhabitants. It has a strong cultural presence (with some of the finest libraries and museums in Latin America) and close economic ties to the US. Along its streets runs a mix of globalised pop, Andean folklore, Caribbean tropical rhythms, the Afro-Colombian heritage of the Pacific and the ancestral roots of the Amazon. Bogotá tastes of rock and cumbia, electronica and salsa, hip hop and champeta.

To savour the sonic soul of Bogotá, you can start by heading to the old colonial neighbourhood – La Candelaria. Check out the city’s salsa roots at places like Salomé Pagana Club Social where salsa bands play or try El Goce Pagano, with live music and DJs mixing roots and future sounds. The Quiebracanto is an unmissable piece of contemporary Bogotá nightlife as the place where La-33 started out – this urban salsa orchestra’s mambo version of Henry Mancini’s ‘Pink Panther’ is a 21st century Bogotá anthem.

La-33 – Pantera Mambo

This club was also the launchpad for other key groups such as Chocquibtown, flagbearers for the music of the Pacific coast, and La Mojarra Eléctrica who fuse funk and jazz with Afro-Colombian rhythms like bullerengue and currulao. Parallel to the electronica wave, this city has become the cornerstone in the revival of Colombian roots music. Bogotá is home to important bands such as Curupira (Colombian roots+rock+funk), Emilsen Pacheco y su Grupo Tradición Bullerenguera and Calambuco (urban salsa, son and mambo) and Tumbacatre, another unmissable band experimenting with tradition.

Chocquibtown – Oro

Clublandia

Electronica had an early hero in the mid 90s in Harvey Cubillos (Dr. Harvey), who with his debut album Cubilleo (2004) put progressive house with Caribbean flavours. Harvey opened the way for the wave of electronica which Sidestepper was part of, and which still dominates in the hip bars of Zona T (between Calle 79 and 85) and along Calle 93, where you can hear pretty much everything. Eating out in restaurants there such as La Puerta Grande, you might catch Palenke Soul Tribe, who give an LA vibe to Bogotá clubland. You can also check out the drum ‘n’ bass style grooves of Radio Rebelde Soundsystem, acid jazz rumba with the Rumba ‘n’ Bass collective (formed by members of La-33 and La Mojarra Elécrica) and Papaya Republik’s lounge stylings.

Plugged in

There’s no doubt which band is in the international spotlight right now: Bomba Estereo. Their punchy sound, which they call ‘electro vacilón’ (crazy electro fun) has got them rave reviews as they tour the world. And back home there is a whole electro party scene going on. Check out De Juepuchas, a multi-media collective who combine design, electronic music and performance art. Their shows, in underground spaces, are urban interventions that have got them a lot of attention. Another cool band is Retrovisor, who incorporate visual projections into their shows. Their Amazonia S.O.S. is a collage of Amazonia, Andes, rock and electronica on its way to becoming a cult album.

Cosmic collisions

It’s impossible to talk about Bogotá – and Colombia – without mentioning the most eclectic Latin sound of all – cumbia. It has become the most popular pan-Latin dance music after salsa, with the digital cumbia movement stretching from Buenos Aires to Mexico City. Humberto Pernett, originally from Barranquilla, gave a massive push to new cumbia with his 2006 album Cumbia Galáctica. Another key name is Frente Cumbiero whose 2009 collaboration with Mad Professor is still one of the best cumbia meets dub encounters yet.

Frente Cumbiero Meets Mad Professor - Bestiales 77 (dub)

Bogotá’s airwaves stream out to the horizon. The city is an incubator, a hub of cosmic collisions, a crossroads where the whole country’s many traditions converge. Some groups, like Alerta Kamarada, pull in reggae influences. Others such as Profetas cross hip hop with reggaeton and African roots (the singer Antombo Langangui is from Gabon). And many groups are plugged in to what Colombian bands based elsewhere are up to, such as the brilliant teen talent Lido Pimienta (in Toronto), the rappers Tres Coronas (in New York) and the fusion group La Chiva Gantiva (in Brussels). Soundcloud has no borders. And Bogotá’s music festivals celebrate these exiles. And everything crosses into each other. Inevitablemente.

More on Mondomix:

Systema Solar – Bienvenidos 

Bomba Estereo – live at WOMEX 2010

Bernardo Gutiérrez

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