New York Tropical

A great compilation of world music (with a heavy emphasis on Latin samples) expertly blended with heavy doses of thumping beats. This particular compilation was created by Dutty Artz trailblazers Matt Shadeteck and WFMU’s very own DJ Rupture. The influence of the epic party/cultural scene that this tagteam has fostered has since given way to a unique blend of world music and electronic styles that is known as “New York Tropical.” This album documents the beginnings of this explosive movement, which draws heavily from cumbia, baile funk, grime, dubstep and house.

FCC CLEAN

*1. A slowed-down cumbia beat with heavy electronic elements. Banging.
2. Mid-tempo techno that slowly builds to a climax. Lots of warm-sounding flanger and bit of glitch techno. All lyrics (sampled) are in Spanish.
3. Uptempo electronica with heavy tropical elements. Not super upbeat and cheery like most tropical but definitely danceable with lots of quick stutterstep percussion.
4. A super-upbeat cumbia beat with lots of tinkly sped-up electronic elements straight out of some sort of Swishahouse southern rap mixtape. An intriguing combination that definitely works.
*5. Hard-hitting electronic bass with lots of Indian instrumentation and percussion.
6. Glitchy electro with lots of short spazzy samples and some excellent Chinese percussion.
*7. Deep grinding techno that sounds like a lot of the stuff going down in LA’s “lazer bass” scene (Alpha Pup Records, Brainfeeder, the Low End Theory Parties, etc.) Lots of awesome Latin percussion and small electronic samples. Bump and Grinddddddddddddd.
*8. Funky electronic with lots of echoey seductive female vox samples. A super danceable joint with hot percussion and a fittingly epic orchestra part.
*9. Rio Baile Funk beat from Brazil. Quick and hard hitting with choppy samples and that awesome signature “get wild” sound you just won’t find anywhere else.
10. Slow ambient with subtle distorted guitar samples.
*11. Midtempo tropical dubstep with lots of dancey percussion and seductive female vocals. Awesome!
12. More of that upbeat Baile Funk sound with subltler samples. Lots of keyboard riffs and a few lines of choppy Burial-esque distorted vocals.