Críticas Magazine

Bruce Jensen

Tijuana Sound Machine
June 11, 2008

What does the border sound like? 

If there's anyone who has come close to answering that, it's the group of composers and beatmeisters known the world over as the Nortec Collective.  

They have "jolted dance floors from Baja California to Berlin, capturing Mexico's tradition while thrusting it into the future," as Ed Morales put it in a recent article, adding, "Their music seemed to announce that the Wild West had landed on the border in a flying saucer."

Nortec draws from the sounds of old-school norteño music with its accordions, horns and beer-soaked sawdust floors, and from the synthesized beats and bleeps of electronic techno dance music.  Plus a whole lot of other stuff that all adds up to a sound adored in clubs, iPods, and TV commercials across the planet. 

It all starts in Tijuana.  A book about the Nortec phenomenon, Paso del Nortec/This is Tijuana,
is a great thing to have; it's bilingual, lavishly artful, and comes with a DVD.

Right now two Nortec stalwarts, Bostich (Ramón Amezcua) and Fussible (Pepe Mogt) are touring behind their new record: Tijuana Sound Machine.  (Longtime Gloria Estefan fans will recognize the, um, homage.)   They'll be part of the pulse of music festivals and clubs this summer in Paris, Istanbul, Stockholm, the Canary Islands—not so bad for an orthodontist and a chemical engineer from TJ.

They spoke in English about their music and about the border with Maria Hinojosa on this week's edition of Latino USA; the audio of that segment is right here. 

And here for your viewing and listening pleasure is Bostich's "Polaris," one of the seminal breakout Nortec hits from nearly ten years ago:

If you want to know more, and if you have the time and the bandwidth, Nortec's MySpace is the place to be.

Posted by Bruce Jensen on June 11, 2008 | Comments (0)