While most would name Colombia as the home of South America’s forward-thinking club scene, neighbouring Ecuador has quietly been carving out its own dancefloor identity in recent years. The country has produced breakout talents such as DJ Nicola Cruz and home-grown labels like ZZK and Wonderwheel Recordings, operating under the social restrictions of a largely Catholic state and in the midst of devastating austerity measures. Most of its key players reside in Quito, and bring together a community at the capital’s inclusive nights, including Cruz’s La Sagraria.
Often marked by downtempo, undulating house rhythms and samples of Andean pan flutes and instruments such as the lute-like charango, their output is organic-sounding. Yet Place: Ecuador, a new charity compilation, showcases a grittier and more kinetic side to the scene. It’s the fourth release in New York label Air Texture’s location-specific charity series (previous editions have covered Georgia, Colombia and the Netherlands), benefiting the indigenous Waorani people’s legal battles against the Ecuadorian government’s sale of their land for mineral rights.
Where Air Texture’s previous compilations were propulsive and dancefloor-oriented, Place: Ecuador offers a broader take on the country’s fluid musical identity. Productions jitter from Discwoman affiliate Riobamba’s broken-beat explorations on Sácalo to duo Cruzloma’s use of Mestizo melodies on their shuffling polyrhythmic number Supay and Patamamba’s ambient cacophony of field recordings. Where Place really hits its stride is in the kinds of eerily fragmented techno popularised by the likes of Hyperdub boss Kode 9 and Objekt. This comes through in producer Lascive Dopamine’s big room track Día Cero, Zoroxxe’s dubby Tigrillo, and Nieves’ two-stepping Invo.
It’s an effective, authentic approach, that wisely avoids the suggestion that Ecuador’s club music is dominated by any one sound. By showcasing this distinctive variety, it offers a map for listeners to undertake their own, deeper explorations.
Also out this month
A wonderful meeting of Ghanaian singers and Jamaican reggae on the roots album Nsie Nsie by the duo Y-Bayani and Baby Naa with their optimistically named Band of Enlightenment, Reason and Love. Single Get Away evokes the bubbling rhythm sections of reggae outfits such as the Maytals and the Wailers. Morocco’s producer Guedra Guedra releases his debut record, Son of Sun, a part footwork, part Kampala beat mix of high-energy club tunes, as much indebted to DJ Rashad as to newcomers like DJ Diaki. Fraternal duo TootArd also release their debut, Migrant Birds, n homage to 80s Beirut disco stacked with pitch-bending percussion and joyous, earworming synth melodies.
