SXSWORLD

Electronica's Next Generation is Fused to Latin Roots by Chase Hoffberger doesn't fit neatly into someone's pocket," admits Joe Nice, the Baltimore- based DJ widely considered America's preeminent dubstepper. "I always wanted dubstep to gain popularity, because I love the music. But I never wanted dubstep to become a cliché and become the punchline of a joke. That seems to be where the genre is heading." Nice has been making dubstep since 2001, when he first saw Britain's D ubstep rattles in a state of flux, and even its most avid cham- pion can't deny it. "It's like it has become a catchall for any kind of music that DJ Dave Nada drum and bass have begun to turn elsewhere in electronic music. "Dubstep has moved into a position that's like the mainstream British dance music of the moment," says Matt Shadetek, cofounder of New York City's Dutty Artz label. "It has come under this pressure to be kind of Friday night peak time dance music. What that's resulted in is a reduction in the experimental, interesting, spacious and unique quali- ties to become something that's more like distorted drum and bass at 140 beats per minute." Shadetek and the rest of the Dutty Artz family—a dancehall and Hatcha and Zed Bias spin the driving, incessant rhythms that first gained popularity in London nightclubs. In that time, the purveyor of New York City's famed Dub War parties has seen the genre grow from decidedly underground to downright popular. Artists as widely known as Snoop Dogg and Xzibit have guested on mixes, and the genre saw its first U.K. Singles Top 10 placement last year with Magnetic Man's "I Need Air." That The New York Times covered a Benga and Skream performance in 2009 was just icing on the mainstream cake. As a result, DJs that once viewed dubstep as a fresh revolution against Matt Shadetek reggaeton unit that includes fellow boss DJ /Rupture and Buzzrock Warrior Jahdan Blakkamore—are part of a new wave of DJs who prefer variations in standard house structures to dubstep's concise, further- down-the-spiral trance. They have spread a dancehall-cum-cumbia gospel through their NY Tropical Parties, underground shakedowns that Shadetek believes are capturing the same diverse and anything-goes spirit that dubstep once inspired at the turn of the new century. "There's a very passionate love of newness within the dancehall scene, a real embrace of rapid stylistic change," says Shadetek. "New rhythms will come out that sometimes will be radically different from month to month. If you listen to dubstep, you'll see that the vast majority of people are sticking to 140bpm, snare-on-the-3 formats. In dancehall, you can have something that's 150bpm followed by something that's 160bpm, and a whole range of different rhythms and styles." Those rhythms, when combined with the ever-emerging interest in incorporating Latin vocal and instrumental tracks into dancehall and house music, have helped spawn a new wave of electronica music that is distinctly downtempo. Austin-based DJ Orion, who has long moved crowds with his mix of bhangra, Juke, Baile funk and recently, his self- concocted Boombachero, attributes the spike to the Internet's expansion. "User growth of the Web is estimated at over 1,000% in Latin America between 2000 and 2010," Orion points out. "Sharing of infor- mation only takes seconds now, and since electronic music and Latin 52 SXSW ORLD / F EBRUAR Y 2011 music are driven by respective beats, it was only a matter of time before they met. Everything is fused because we aren't as far away from each other as we once thought." That is no more evident than in the case of Los Angeles-via- bahton," says Nada. "Some of it's really heavy and rave-y and there's other stuff that's really house-y or popish. That's all good. Sometimes you find yourself in a routine. But seeing things like this blow up like it has, it's made me fall in love with music all over again. People are getting inspired, and it's pushing other people to be creative." n Washington, D.C. DJ Dave Nada. Nada has emerged overnight as one of the industry's hottest DJs, and his moombahton, which slows down Dutch house music (originally Afrojack's remix of Silvio Ecomo & DJ Chuckie's "Moombah") to 108bpm before blending it with cumbia and other Latin inflections, sprouted last March and has already become a worldwide hit. To date, DJs as revered as Diplo have included moom- bahton in their sets, which have been performed as far from Nada's home as Munich and Melbourne. "We're at a point now where there are different degrees of moom- Stay tuned to sxsw.com/music for artist and showcase information, as well as panel and speaker schedules. SUGARCOOKIE ALEX NAVAS

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