In Jace Clayton's feature on Cumbia in Buenos Aires from F55, he said that "according to one legend, cumbia is what happened when Colombian natives and black slaves found accordions washed onshore from a German shipwreck. Some view its tropical skank as the missing link between upbeat salsa flash and the dubwise languor of reggae." That middle sound could be deceptively simple but its patient, raspy groove is also deliciously liberal and infinitely mutable, any instrument can take the melody. Leonardo Martinelli has composed original work, collaborated with dudes he likes and produced remixes and tapes as Tremor for the last decade. As a part of the ZZK label he's stretched the Cumbia sound and married it and his crew to other lanes, championing a new-normal all South America music that mines the textures and talents of folklore sounds, dubstep architects and digital sharing in the tradition of artists that have blended rock and jazz with rural music for decades. Tremor's mix of Latinsizer's "Libelua" sounds like the prologue of an eco conscious new-world robot opera, a grizzled True Gritty dude recounting an incredible journey he took once. But he's reporting from the future, where all cars sounds like beetle-spaceships. Last year Tremor toured North America with the whole ZZK crew, and he's hoping to come back stateside after a round in Brazil next month. Today you can download the whole Para Armar remix album from ZZK and grab Tremor's previous mix with the ZZK team here.
Download: Latinsizer, "Libelua (Tremor Mix)"