48
SOUTH AMERICAN
D&B
Everyone knows about drum & bass in Brazil – DJ Marky and his chums helped to put South
America’s largest country well and truly on the map thanks to a golden period at the end of the last
century. A decade on, the rest of the continent has also been bitten by the bug and Knowledge has
been finding out what all the fuss is about in one of the scene’s newest frontiers.
The names Rockman and The Ego might not the process of organising a new weekly night called is a really young city with lots of young people
mean anything to you just yet but it won’t be Dammm It’s Friday with Silver. and universities so everyone seems to be partying
long. Just as the landscape of global drum & bass all the time – people don’t really go out until
changed forever with the release of ‘LK’ in 2002, “Curiously enough, when the drum & bass scene midnight and it can go on until about eight in
the rest of South America is set to follow suit as was born in Bogota, it went hand in hand with the morning!
countries such as Argentina, Colombia and Chile hard techno,” he says, “but recently we have
pick up the baton. created our own crowd, so today we have dedicated “The weather is beautiful and as for the women!”
parties. This audience has had the opportunity of he adds. “It’s totally different to America and
“About 10 or 11 years ago, I was the first drum seeing and hearing great international DJs like other places I’ve been to – I’ve fallen in love with
& bass DJ to play in Santiago,” remembers DJ Silver, Marky, Mexico’s Isaac Maya and Oxxo it and I want to live there. The night is going to
Suv, now residing in Spain. “With help from the from Venezuela thanks to the efforts of some of be every week and we’re going to try and build it
British Council based in Chile, I created a kind us promoters. I think this is the beginning of the up by bringing UK artists over to play as much we
of X Factor competition where I held and hosted biggest parties here in Colombia – there is a lot can. There’s quite a lot of English people here
a vocal competition. Rappers, MCs and singers of interest in the music now and hopefully we can because the British Council is based in the city –
came from all around the city and I had to pick keep it progressing.” I’m moving I with a guy from Chelsea who works
a winner from 17 entries. The winner got to work for them which is going to be a help because I
with me and has since featured on various projects Busy in the studio putting the finishing touches to don’t speak a word of Spanish!”
of mine.” his latest track ‘Ezquizofrenia’ for US label Black
Reign, Rockman can also lay claim to a unique Situated more than 2,000 miles away and at the
And that’s not all. DJ Silver has been another method of music production – via his Gameboy. opposite end of the continent, Santiago in Chile
major supporter of the emerging scenes ever since “Recently I’ve been doing an 8bit music drum & is another South American city to embrace drum
he followed in the footsteps of artists including bass live show, programming and composing the & bass. Diego Fernandez aka The Ego is the main
Danny Wheeler and Rhythm Beater and visited music directly from a classic Nintendo Gameboy, force behind that, having first discovered the
the continent for the first time back in 2004. which has really been embraced by the crowd,” music on visits to the UK and then welcomed the
he explains. likes of Marky, Patife and Bryan G to the country
“Since then, it has really started to take off and as the Brazilian effect swept the continent.
now I’m playing to crowds of more than 1,000 “There’s also other artists in Colombia coming
people every time I go there,” he explains. up with new ideas – The Unreal Project is a DJ “Then in 2003, drum & bass seemed to die,”
“It’s a really mixed crowd – there’s all sorts / producer whose live act uses a controller USB he remembers. “That was mainly because of a
of people interested because it’s so new. The machine and laptop, while Redbox Landscape’s lack of promoters meant the level of nights went
promoters are all coming up with different live act includes hardware and laptops to make seriously down and everyone lost interest. I kept
ideas - I spoke to Rockman who puts on events a kind of breakcore and drum & bass style. producing though and in 2005 we started putting
in Bogota and he told me they had a party in the I’m trying to improve by experimenting with on nights with hip hop promoters. A year later,
middle of the jungle the other week with about different styles like neuro-funk, tech step there was enough demand to start our own night
500 people there! They’re really building a and jump-up, and in an attempt to not being and Rewind was born in a club called Ex Fabrica
scene because it started out in small clubs but is classed in one genre, I like to call my music in Santiago. I invited almost all the Chilean DJs
gradually growing.” ‘8-bit drum & bass’.” to play there and we have since moved to Cinearte
Alameda, where we remain to this day.
Having begun his musical career as a clarinet No stranger to decamping to the other side of
player involved in classical music, Rockman (aka the world after spending seven years living in “We have caught the attention of a lot of people
Ramiro Andres Navarro) has developed into one Miami, Silver is now intending to join Rockman in my country,” he adds. “Rewind has become a
of the most important figures in Colombian in Bogota for three months to help establish their major part of Santiago’s nightlife with more than
drum & bass since hearing an Aphrodite mix new event. 600 people at our nights every time. We have
CD back in 2001. He is now a regular performer tried to use DJs from all over South America to
at the city’s main nights including Pixel Party, “I think Colombia really has the potential to do add some unity to the scene – I think we can really
Raving La Capital and Bogota Project and is in some interesting things,” he explains. “Bogota benefit if we work together.”
www.kmag.co.uk
K48-49_SouthAmerica.indd 48 29/4/09 13:07:27
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