A Guide to Tijuana’s Eccentric Electronic Underground
a-guide-to-tijuanas-eccentric-electronic-underground
July 13, 2015
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# A Guide to Tijuana’s Eccentric Electronic Underground
# When Tijuana ends up in the international news, it isn't usually for it's local music scene.
"In Mexico, everything is organized around Mexico City," explains
Ejival, co-manager and founder of the longstanding local label Static
Discos. He says that, while the Baja California border town is a "great
place for experimenting," it's seen as provincial, so Mexico City
functions like a giant black hole for the city's creative types.
Brain drain notwithstanding, Tijuana's small electronic underground has
generated a disproportionately large number of visionary artists in
recent years. The city even has its own regional sound, ruidoson
("ruidoso" means "noisy"), which merges Mexican traditional music with
punk aesthetics and techno tools. I compiled the selections you'll find
here---a combination of people who were born there, lived there for a
period of time and/or still call the city home---through recommendations
from friends and contacts on the ground, and together they suggest a
strong goth streak in the region's musical tastes. Perhaps that penchant
reflects the rather dark history of the city itself: the savage violence
that flared up in the late '00s due to conflicts between rival drug
cartels and authorities, rampant addiction and the violent effects of
the militarized U.S. border that stands at the city's northern edge.
But its seedy reputation constitutes only one of the many faces of
Tijuana, says Ejival. "There's the dangerous Tijuana," he admits, but
there's also "the vanguardist Tijuana, the entrepreneurial, the
commercial, the normal." As the brutal cartel conflicts have more or
less subsided in the last few years, the city has begun to draw renewed
international interest in its audacious contemporary art world. It's
also become home to a booming craft beer brewing industry. "In that
sense it's full of contradictions. It's an ugly city, but its border
dynamic makes it feel really sexy too."
Thanks to Conejito Colvin of Los Macuanos, as well as Paulina Méndez
from [Dealer's Brand][1] clothing in Chihuahua
for their help in researching this guide.
## [Siberium][2]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
[SoundCloud Track][3]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"}
Braulio Lam and Rodrigo Luviano make droning, shamanic industrial music
that leaves the listener with a lingering and unshakeable paranoia.
Their five-track ISO EP from last year is the perfect
soundtrack for a little bit of dark magic, so press play, light three
black candles, and wait for the storm clouds to cast evil shadows across
your bedroom.
## [Dani Shivers][4]
[SoundCloud Track (173265969)][5]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer"}
When it comes to ominous, lo-fi bedroom pop made with malfunctioning
toys, Dani Shivers is at the top of the heap. Her discography's
predominant themes include dark alleyways, night terrors, ghosts, death,
magic and candy, which should give you a better idea of what you're in
for. The singer, producer and performer was selected to participate in
the next Red Bull Music Academy program in Paris this fall, and is
preparing her forthcoming album, *Syzygy*, due out on the France's
Cranes label.
## Benfika
[https://soundcloud.com/infinitemachine/benfika-catarsis][6]
Benfika is one of the newest signees to Infinite Machine, a broad-minded
bass music label anchored in Montreal and Mexico City. His debut EP for
the imprint, *121214*, reveals a knack for scalpel-sharp sound design as
well as a deeply haunting sense of melody. What would trance arpeggios
sound like at the bottom of a frozen ocean? Click to find out.
## [Santos][7]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
[https://soundcloud.com/santos-1/soles][8]
Santos brings the techno hammer down on Northern Mexico's regional pop
music. The result is ruidoson, the aforementioned local movement that he
helped build alongside other Tijuana acts like Maria y José and Los
Macuanos. It's a wonderfully chaotic micro-genre that cannibalizes many
of the iconic sounds of the US-Mexico border, feeding cumbia rhythms and
banda brass sections through a warped, surrealist filter.
## [Los Macuanos][9]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
[https://soundcloud.com/losmacuanos/el-u-ltimo-desafi-o][10]
Five years ago Los Macuanos dropped *El Fin*, a groundbreaking and
loosely conceptual debut LP that weaves together samples and live
instrumentation to channel Tijuana's strange psychic energy. Like
Santos, the three-piece band's early catalog draws upon the tinny
whispers of the Mexican radio dial, offering distorted reflections of
old and scratchy cumbia records---though their sound is unmistakably
more sinister. However, band member Conejito Colvin says the group has
turned toward a more industrial and overtly political aesthetic on its
forthcoming album. "El Último Desafío" more closely resembles what
you'll hear on their long-awaited follow-up LP, which is due out this
year.
## [Static Discos][11]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
[https://soundcloud.com/staticdiscos/lostoys-preview][12]
This Tijuana-based imprint was founded in 2002 by the mononymous Ejival,
who offered his take on the Tijuana music scene in the introduction. The
label's wide-reaching catalog emphasizes Latin American artists and
charts a course around the outer reaches of house, techno, avant-garde
pop and sound collage. [Macario's *Topure* LP][13]{: target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} from last year is a crowd favorite, and a great
introduction to the label sound.
## [Hidhawk][14]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
[SoundCloud Track (204747160)][15]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer"}
Ejival recommended that I check out Hidhawk, the noisiest artist on this
list. The Tijuana native makes glitchy, zero-fidelity sound collages
with what sounds like damaged or circuit-bent instruments and
occasionally veers into more rhythmic or dance floor-oriented territory.
She also recently launched [Mundotheque][16]{: target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}, a blog that archives field recordings of traditional
music from various countries for remixing purposes.
## [Tony Gallardo II/María y José][17]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
[SoundCloud Track (42399935)][18]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer"}
Marco Antonio Jiménez Gallardo first rose to prominence as a pioneer of
the regional ruidoson style under the name María y José. However, his
newer releases have moved towards a sound that straddles electro-pop and
raw acid techno. His 2009 debut LP as María y Jose, *Espiritu
Invisible*, is a kaleidoscopic journey through electrified folk sounds,
and it's absolutely worth visiting for those who haven't yet. He also
recorded a [50-minute mixtape][19]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"} of
the rambunctious Mexican party music known as *tribal guarachero* that
serves as a great primer for the genre.
## [El Muerto de Tijuana][20]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
[La maguana, el muerto de tijuana][21]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer"}
If you live in Tijuana, you've probably seen El Muerto---The Dead
Man---posted up in the park, singing along to chintzy drum loops from
his vintage keyboard. He's very likely dressed in a leather trench coat,
with his bleached shoulder-length coif, Gene Simmons-style face paint
and a heavy silver crucifix dangling from around his neck. I was first
introduced to him by the semi-fictional triple-X mockumentary
[Navajazo][22]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}, which paints a sordid
picture of the communities living on Tijuana's fringes. Book him for
your next party!
## [Bostich & Fussible][23]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
[SoundCloud Track (161676721)][24]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer"}
No guide to Tijuana music is complete without a mention of the Nortec
Collective, a group of local producers and performers that formed in the
late '90s and quickly rose to legendary status across Mexico. Today,
plenty of Latin American artists merge regional or traditional music
with electronic textures and tools, but at the time, Nortec's fusion of
techno rhythms with border town pop called *norteño* was revolutionary.
Bostich and Fussible are two of the most accomplished members of the now
dissolved unit, and last year's [video][25]{: target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} for their track "Camino Verde" is a hallucinogenic tour
of the Baja California coast.
*Cover photo from [Dani Shivers' Facebook][26]{: target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}.*
[1]: http://dealersbrand.tumblr.com/
[2]: https://soundcloud.com/siberium6
[3]: https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/61078485
[4]: https://soundcloud.com/danishivers
[5]: https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/173265969
[6]: https://soundcloud.com/infinitemachine/benfika-catarsis
[7]: https://soundcloud.com/santos-1
[8]: https://soundcloud.com/santos-1/soles
[9]: https://soundcloud.com/losmacuanos
[10]: https://soundcloud.com/losmacuanos/el-u-ltimo-desafi-o
[11]: https://www.facebook.com/staticdiscos
[12]: https://soundcloud.com/staticdiscos/lostoys-preview
[13]: https://staticdiscos.bandcamp.com/album/topure
[14]: https://soundcloud.com/hidhawk
[15]: https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/204747160
[16]: http://mundotheque.tumblr.com/
[17]: https://soundcloud.com/elmariayjose
[18]: https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/42399935
[19]: https://soundcloud.com/elmariayjose/mar-a-y-jos-world-wide-tribal
[20]: https://www.facebook.com/ElMuertoDeTijuanaFanpage
[21]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmx-EdnrlQQ
[22]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=850d93X468w
[23]: https://www.facebook.com/nortecbf
[24]: https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/161676721
[25]: http://remezcla.com/releases/video-nortec-collective-camino-verde/
[26]: https://www.facebook.com/danishivers/photos/pb.119216431450509.-2207520000.1436940904./834128589959286/?type=3&theater
---
id: 22dbe3c9-782d-4af2-b1bf-9ddfced4e36a
blueprint: article
title: 'A Guide to Tijuana’s Eccentric Electronic Underground'
date: 2015-07-13T14:02:19+02:00
wp_id: '96558'
slug: a-guide-to-tijuanas-eccentric-electronic-underground
teaser_image: legacy/a-guide-to-tijuanas-eccentric-electronic-underground/8987_834128589959286_4018444638781107765_n.jpg
contents:
-
type: text
text: '<h1>When Tijuana ends up in the international news, it isn’t usually for it’s local music scene.</h1><p>“In Mexico, everything is organized around Mexico City,” explains Ejival, co-manager and founder of the longstanding local label Static Discos. He says that, while the Baja California border town is a “great place for experimenting,” it’s seen as provincial, so Mexico City functions like a giant black hole for the city’s creative types.</p><p>Brain drain notwithstanding, Tijuana’s small electronic underground has generated a disproportionately large number of visionary artists in recent years. The city even has its own regional sound, ruidoson (“ruidoso” means “noisy”), which merges Mexican traditional music with punk aesthetics and techno tools. I compiled the selections you’ll find here—a combination of people who were born there, lived there for a period of time and/or still call the city home—through recommendations from friends and contacts on the ground, and together they suggest a strong goth streak in the region’s musical tastes. Perhaps that penchant reflects the rather dark history of the city itself: the savage violence that flared up in the late ’00s due to conflicts between rival drug cartels and authorities, rampant addiction and the violent effects of the militarized U.S. border that stands at the city’s northern edge.</p><p>But its seedy reputation constitutes only one of the many faces of Tijuana, says Ejival. “There’s the dangerous Tijuana,” he admits, but there’s also “the vanguardist Tijuana, the entrepreneurial, the commercial, the normal.” As the brutal cartel conflicts have more or less subsided in the last few years, the city has begun to draw renewed international interest in its audacious contemporary art world. It’s also become home to a booming craft beer brewing industry. “In that sense it’s full of contradictions. It’s an ugly city, but its border dynamic makes it feel really sexy too.”</p><p>Thanks to Conejito Colvin of Los Macuanos, as well as Paulina Méndez from <a href="http://dealersbrand.tumblr.com/"><span class="s1">Dealer’s Brand</span></a> clothing in Chihuahua for their help in researching this guide.</p><h2><a href="https://soundcloud.com/siberium6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Siberium</a></h2><p><a href="https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/61078485" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SoundCloud Track</a></p><p>Braulio Lam and Rodrigo Luviano make droning, shamanic industrial music that leaves the listener with a lingering and unshakeable paranoia. Their five-track <em>ISO </em>EP from last year is the perfect soundtrack for a little bit of dark magic, so press play, light three black candles, and wait for the storm clouds to cast evil shadows across your bedroom.</p><h2><a href="https://soundcloud.com/danishivers">Dani Shivers</a></h2><p><a href="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/173265969" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SoundCloud Track (173265969)</a></p><p>When it comes to ominous, lo-fi bedroom pop made with malfunctioning toys, Dani Shivers is at the top of the heap. Her discography’s predominant themes include dark alleyways, night terrors, ghosts, death, magic and candy, which should give you a better idea of what you’re in for. The singer, producer and performer was selected to participate in the next Red Bull Music Academy program in Paris this fall, and is preparing her forthcoming album, <em>Syzygy</em>, due out on the France’s Cranes label.</p><h2>Benfika</h2><p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/infinitemachine/benfika-catarsis">https://soundcloud.com/infinitemachine/benfika-catarsis</a></p><p>Benfika is one of the newest signees to Infinite Machine, a broad-minded bass music label anchored in Montreal and Mexico City. His debut EP for the imprint, <em>121214</em>, reveals a knack for scalpel-sharp sound design as well as a deeply haunting sense of melody. What would trance arpeggios sound like at the bottom of a frozen ocean? Click to find out.</p><h2><a href="https://soundcloud.com/santos-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Santos</a></h2><p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/santos-1/soles">https://soundcloud.com/santos-1/soles</a></p><p>Santos brings the techno hammer down on Northern Mexico’s regional pop music. The result is ruidoson, the aforementioned local movement that he helped build alongside other Tijuana acts like Maria y José and Los Macuanos. It’s a wonderfully chaotic micro-genre that cannibalizes many of the iconic sounds of the US-Mexico border, feeding cumbia rhythms and banda brass sections through a warped, surrealist filter.</p><h2><a href="https://soundcloud.com/losmacuanos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Macuanos</a></h2><p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/losmacuanos/el-u-ltimo-desafi-o">https://soundcloud.com/losmacuanos/el-u-ltimo-desafi-o</a></p><p>Five years ago Los Macuanos dropped <em>El Fin</em>, a groundbreaking and loosely conceptual debut LP that weaves together samples and live instrumentation to channel Tijuana’s strange psychic energy. Like Santos, the three-piece band’s early catalog draws upon the tinny whispers of the Mexican radio dial, offering distorted reflections of old and scratchy cumbia records—though their sound is unmistakably more sinister. However, band member Conejito Colvin says the group has turned toward a more industrial and overtly political aesthetic on its forthcoming album. “El Último Desafío” more closely resembles what you’ll hear on their long-awaited follow-up LP, which is due out this year.</p><h2><a href="https://www.facebook.com/staticdiscos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Static Discos</a></h2><p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/staticdiscos/lostoys-preview">https://soundcloud.com/staticdiscos/lostoys-preview</a></p><p>This Tijuana-based imprint was founded in 2002 by the mononymous Ejival, who offered his take on the Tijuana music scene in the introduction. The label’s wide-reaching catalog emphasizes Latin American artists and charts a course around the outer reaches of house, techno, avant-garde pop and sound collage. <a href="https://staticdiscos.bandcamp.com/album/topure" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Macario’s <em>Topure</em> LP</a> from last year is a crowd favorite, and a great introduction to the label sound.</p><h2><a href="https://soundcloud.com/hidhawk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hidhawk</a></h2><p><a href="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/204747160" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SoundCloud Track (204747160)</a></p><p>Ejival recommended that I check out Hidhawk, the noisiest artist on this list. The Tijuana native makes glitchy, zero-fidelity sound collages with what sounds like damaged or circuit-bent instruments and occasionally veers into more rhythmic or dance floor-oriented territory. She also recently launched <a href="http://mundotheque.tumblr.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mundotheque</a>, a blog that archives field recordings of traditional music from various countries for remixing purposes.</p><h2><a href="https://soundcloud.com/elmariayjose" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tony Gallardo II/María y José</a></h2><p><a href="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/42399935" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SoundCloud Track (42399935)</a></p><p>Marco Antonio Jiménez Gallardo first rose to prominence as a pioneer of the regional ruidoson style under the name María y José. However, his newer releases have moved towards a sound that straddles electro-pop and raw acid techno. His 2009 debut LP as María y Jose, <em>Espiritu Invisible</em>, is a kaleidoscopic journey through electrified folk sounds, and it’s absolutely worth visiting for those who haven’t yet. He also recorded a <a href="https://soundcloud.com/elmariayjose/mar-a-y-jos-world-wide-tribal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">50-minute mixtape</a> of the rambunctious Mexican party music known as <em>tribal guarachero</em> that serves as a great primer for the genre.</p><h2><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElMuertoDeTijuanaFanpage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">El Muerto de Tijuana</a></h2><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmx-EdnrlQQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">La maguana, el muerto de tijuana</a></p><p>If you live in Tijuana, you’ve probably seen El Muerto—The Dead Man—posted up in the park, singing along to chintzy drum loops from his vintage keyboard. He’s very likely dressed in a leather trench coat, with his bleached shoulder-length coif, Gene Simmons-style face paint and a heavy silver crucifix dangling from around his neck. I was first introduced to him by the semi-fictional triple-X mockumentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=850d93X468w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Navajazo</a>, which paints a sordid picture of the communities living on Tijuana’s fringes. Book him for your next party!</p><h2><a href="https://www.facebook.com/nortecbf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bostich & Fussible</a></h2><p><a href="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/161676721" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SoundCloud Track (161676721)</a></p><p>No guide to Tijuana music is complete without a mention of the Nortec Collective, a group of local producers and performers that formed in the late ’90s and quickly rose to legendary status across Mexico. Today, plenty of Latin American artists merge regional or traditional music with electronic textures and tools, but at the time, Nortec’s fusion of techno rhythms with border town pop called <em>norteño</em> was revolutionary. Bostich and Fussible are two of the most accomplished members of the now dissolved unit, and last year’s <a href="http://remezcla.com/releases/video-nortec-collective-camino-verde/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> for their track “Camino Verde” is a hallucinogenic tour of the Baja California coast.</p><p><em>Cover photo from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/danishivers/photos/pb.119216431450509.-2207520000.1436940904./834128589959286/?type=3&theater" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dani Shivers’ Facebook</a>.</em></p>'
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# A Guide to Tijuana’s Eccentric Electronic Underground
Chunk #2 (Position: 1)
# A Guide to Tijuana’s Eccentric Electronic Underground . # When Tijuana ends up in the international news, it isn't usually for it's local music scene. "In Mexico, everything is organized around Mexico City," explains Ejival, co-manager and founder of the longstanding local label Static Discos...
Chunk #3 (Position: 2)
Perhaps that penchant reflects the rather dark history of the city itself: the savage violence that flared up in the late '00s due to conflicts between rival drug cartels and authorities, rampant addiction and the violent effects of the militarized U.S. border that stands at the city's northern e...
Chunk #4 (Position: 3)
"In that sense it's full of contradictions. It's an ugly city, but its border dynamic makes it feel really sexy too." Thanks to Conejito Colvin of Los Macuanos, as well as Paulina Méndez from [Dealer's Brand][1] clothing in Chihuahua for their help in researching this guide. ## [Siberium][2]{: t...
Chunk #5 (Position: 4)
## [Siberium][2]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"} [SoundCloud Track][3]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"} Braulio Lam and Rodrigo Luviano make droning, shamanic industrial music that leaves the listener with a lingering and unshakeable paranoia. Their five-track ISO EP from last yea...
Chunk #6 (Position: 5)
Her discography's predominant themes include dark alleyways, night terrors, ghosts, death, magic and candy, which should give you a better idea of what you're in for. The singer, producer and performer was selected to participate in the next Red Bull Music Academy program in Paris this fall, and ...
Chunk #7 (Position: 6)
What would trance arpeggios sound like at the bottom of a frozen ocean. Click to find out. ## [Santos][7]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"} [https://soundcloud.com/santos-1/soles][8] Santos brings the techno hammer down on Northern Mexico's regional pop music. The result is ruidoson, the aforem...
Chunk #8 (Position: 7)
The result is ruidoson, the aforementioned local movement that he helped build alongside other Tijuana acts like Maria y José and Los Macuanos. It's a wonderfully chaotic micro-genre that cannibalizes many of the iconic sounds of the US-Mexico border, feeding cumbia rhythms and banda brass sectio...
Chunk #9 (Position: 8)
However, band member Conejito Colvin says the group has turned toward a more industrial and overtly political aesthetic on its forthcoming album. "El Último Desafío" more closely resembles what you'll hear on their long-awaited follow-up LP, which is due out this year. ## [Static Discos][11]{: ta...
Chunk #10 (Position: 9)
The label's wide-reaching catalog emphasizes Latin American artists and charts a course around the outer reaches of house, techno, avant-garde pop and sound collage. [Macario's *Topure* LP][13]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"} from last year is a crowd favorite, and a great introduction to the l...
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