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DJ Sessions: Fusing Latin American Cumbia, Reggaeton And Tribal Sounds

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A new musical style of fusion is sweeping through Latin America, and also popping up in the U.S., as DJ Luis Espada tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson.

Espada, who was born in Madrid and grew up in Mexico, is part of the music and art collective known as Peligrosa.

He says new artists, from Peru's Dengue Dengue Dengue to Brooklyn's Sango, are heavily relying on sounds from the past. Espada said Dengue Dengue Dengue achieves this by sampling Native American music and old cumbia beats in their songs.

"Not only do they do that, their visuals are amazing — they wear these masks where it's all neon colored, but still represents the old Indian heritage of Peru and around that area," he said. "They are considered new cumbia, digital cumbia, but to me, the name tropical bass has been around longer, so that's what I like to call them and pretty much everyone we're going to speak about today."

Note: We now have a Spotify playlist for our weekly DJ Sessions segment! The playlist will be updated each week with new songs. Spotify is free to use, but requires a login. See the playlist here.

Songs Heard In This Segment

Dengue Dengue Dengue, "R2"

Dengue Dengue Dengue, "Rama"

Pablito Mix, "Mi Cumbiaton"

Popcaan, "Everything Nice"

Sango, "Especial (feat. MC Taty)"

Sango, "Me dê Amor"

Guest

This segment aired on May 21, 2014.

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