Pico Culture #03 - Mysterious records

In order to maintain exclusivity of tracks played on each pico (and thus gain loyalty of the public who has to go to the party to listen to specific exclusive hits), it was common to tear away or paint the label sothat no one could read the original track. The result is some really unique beautiful pieces, but also some unidentified hits (everyone knows the song but no one knows who was the artist, so the track is only known by his spanish surname). That's the case with the following 7" played by the pico El Dragon, but originally from the famous pico El Coreano.

Pico Culture #02 - MIX /// Terapia Africana Mix (a selection of pico african hits)

From the 70s, while the soundsystem culture was developing, more and more african records arrived on the colombian coast due to increasing commercial exchanges between international harbors.

Some african songs became hits, african styles being surnamed: nova for highlife tracks, rastrillo for kenyan tracks... It was such a big success for the youth of Cartagena and Baranquilla that even each popular song received his own surname. Also several tracks have been bootlegged in terapia/champeta  compilations (which leads to find improbable records including a pure benga followed by an awful 80s techno), and not always credited the original artist/title, but just the local surname known by everybody.

That's the reason of this special selection, composed only of african tracks (Liberia, Angola, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Zaire). These tunes are popular in Baranquilla's southern barrios, as long as you speak about: la botellita, el serrucho, la guitarrita, la mecedora, la munequita, el rastrillo, el beto, los palitos, la pipona,  el ejen, el akien, la llorona...

Pico Culture #01 - Introducing "El Pico"

A very interesting cultural aspect on the colombian caribbean coast, particularly in Cartagena and Baranquilla  is the Pico Culture. A Pico is a soundsystem that usually plays vinyls (very loud!) during weekends. It developed on the coast from the 60s and evolved up to now with different influences during each decade. The caribbean coast has always been for Colombia the "front door" for other countries, so Baranquilla as principal harbor, received influences (and records) from all around the caribbean and also from Africa. As result, big proportion of the music played is african vinyls from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zaire, Angola (some DJs play 100% african music). But the selection can also be very diverse (cumbia, gaita, guaguanco, pachanga, tumbele, calypso, reggae... ), demonstrating importance of this crossroad within black atlantic interconnections. In parallel, it also developed a local style played on the soundsystems, initially called "Terapia" then "Champeta". Althoug corresponding more to a "80s sound" (including effects and new technical possibilities), it reveals amazing soukous influences which contributed to a kind of renewing of the african consciousness in popular areas of Cartagena and Baranquilla.

I do not pretend to describe here it all, as its richness makes it an infinite task, but I'll just try to enlighten some aspects discovered during researches in Baranquilla. 

Lets begin with a Pico from the 70s, La Salsa de Puerto Rico, from barrio El Bosque.

Synchro Rythmic Ecclectic Language (afrojazz 70s)

(SONG RECORDS SR 04).

This atypical afro-caribean jazzfunk band includes great musicians as George Edouard Nouel (keyboard), Louis Xavier (bass), Jo Maka (sax). A really groovy blend of influences...

Synchro Rythmic Ecclectic Language - Sipote:


Synchro Rythmic Ecclectic Language also released a LP on Moshe Naim label (MN 12007) on which full band is credited:
Jo Maka: sax
Louis Xavier: bass
Georges Edouard Nouel: keyboards
Saint-Yves Dolphin: perc
Jean-Yves Rigaud: violin
Gérard Curbillon: guitar
Gérard Philadelphe: vocals / perc
Steve Mac-Call: drumsFrank Valmont: vocals

Another afrojazz record likable on Muzzicaltrips HERE.

MIX /// Muzzicaltrips back from Barcelona (45rpm selection)

I came back recently to Barcelona and had time to dig a bit some latin records in old crates...

Muzzicaltrips Mix /// 45rpms found in Barcelona (24min):

The first Brazilian DJ: Seu Osvaldo Pereira

Um post para os amigos brasileiros...

Brazil has definitely the "vinyl culture". From the 50s, a huge record production representing the variety of brazilian music styles makes it a paradise for diggers.

Here's an interview of Osvaldo Pereira, considered as the first brazilian DJ, talking about "time when turn table was gramophone" and looking back to several decades of music selection in Brazil.

Mangalha - The biggest vinyls collection in Angola

Jose Henrique Ribeiro, famous in Luanda as "Mangalha", comes back in this interview on his vinyl collector experiences in Angola.

somewhere in dakar...

Let's start somewhere in Dakar...

... kind of place you enter disturbing a whole ecosystem including bugs and rats, and go out smelly but imagining the moment back home in front of the turntable...

jërëjëf.