Greetings, KEXPers. Michele Myers here. I produce KEXP Documentaries. Short radio stories on musical subjects. Our current series is all about the cutting edge in international music. It’s called The New World, not only because it’s new and world music, but also because it is about exploration and discovery…
This past week we featured Nortec Collective, a group of electronic music producers from Mexico. They started out doing strictly dance music, but then had an idea to mix Northern Mexican music (norteno) with the beats and loops they had gotten so good at. They also wanted their songs to incorporate all the music they loved growing up. Their home city of Tijuana, Mexico is close enough to the border to catch radio signals from the U.S, so they heard styles from all over the world on those stations.
Unbelievably, Nortec Collective has created trippy, jazzy, dance tracks by mixing Mexican sounds and beats with influences from bands as diverse as: Joy Division, Kraftwerk and Herb Alpert and the genres of disco, house and techno. How could this possibly work? Check it out.
KEXP Documentaries are produced by Michele Myers, with assistance from John Felthous and Leah Pogwizd. You can hear all our KEXP Docs series including: Punk Evolution, Masters of Turntablism, The Heart of Soul, Pop Goes Electronic and more in the On Demand section of kexp.org.
