It’s loud, it’s vibrant, it’s picking up speed—it’s CUMBIATRON, the finest cumbia dance party on the West Coast! DJs Don-D, Geronimo Selector, Jalinche and Dog Plasma tour their freaky, funky, untraditional Latin club mixes up and down California, and this night features ESSJ’s own Philthy Dronez. Mr. Philthy is a livewire on guitar, accordion, and vocals, and his recent single “Caiganle a la Fiesta” promises to get even the most self-conscious dancer’s hips shaking (caiganle equates roughly to “roll through”; fiesta needs no translation). The show is all-ages, so teens and seniors alike can become rhythm machines for the evening.

CUMBIATRON + Philthy Dronez
Sat, 7pm, $15
LVL Up, San Jose

Mateo Gonzales presses play and the track springs to life. The window on his laptop shows various layers of composition scrolling by. There’s a sample of Bobby Day’s “Rockin’ Robin.” The trilling whistle of the early rockabilly hit leaps from the small computer speakers, as do the more tinny rhythmic elements: the high hats and snare of a boom-bap beat are clearly audible, as is the scratchy güira, which plays a consistent shuffle. Less audible is the slouching bass that will ultimately help punch-up the song when Gonzales plays it for a crowd on a dancefloor with a decent subwoofer.

With this mashup, Gonzales, who makes music as Philthy Dronez, has pulled together three genres of music to produce a fourth. Sometimes called “cumbia bass,” the style owes no small debt to the inclusion of the güira—the colander-like percussion instrument that is played by scraping a spoon or stick along a corrugated metal cylinder. It’s a familiar sound for those who grew up in the South Bay.

Cumbia, a traditional form of Latin dance music, is a part of the sonic fabric of just about every country south of the Rio Grande. From Mexico and the Caribbean through Colombia—the genre’s country of origin—on down to Argentina, cumbia has been moving people for generations. While cumbia bass music is comprised of many long-extant sounds and musical styles, it’s new to the U.S., according to a number of tastemaking DJs and musicians who are actively producing the tropically inflected style in San Jose.

Here, in the cultural melting pot that is Silicon Valley, a generation of Latin-American musicians, like Gonzales, are helping to spread the sound through mashups, DJ sets and bands informed by the music of their ancestors, as well as what they grew up hearing on KMEL 106.1, Live 105 and Wild 94.9.

Two Worlds

There’s an expression, Gonzales says: “Sus pies en dos lados.” Literally translated, “Your feet on both sides.”

In this context, it means being a part of two cultures at the same time. Growing up, he explains, cumbia was everywhere. He heard it at home, at parties and on TV every time Selena came on. Banda, mariachi and corridos were also inescapable.

But growing up in San Jose, hip-hop, punk, R&B, rock & roll and soul were also ubiquitous. So was DJ culture. That Gonzales would ultimately seek to blend it all together may have been inevitable. Just ask Fernando J. Pérez and Roman Zepeda. Two of the founding members of local Latino party-production collective Sonido Clash, the pair understand where Gonzales is coming from.

“Being Mexican-American you’ve got one foot on one side and the other foot on the other side,” Pérez says, echoing Gonzales. “We’re not from here, we’re not from there—so what are we?”

It’s a question that can lead to a very specific anxiety—which actor Edward James Olmos summed up so succinctly playing Abraham Quintanilla in the 1997 biopic of ’90s Mexican-American pop icon Selena: “I mean, we gotta know about John Wayne and Pedro Infante,” Quintanilla says, bemoaning his dual identity’s burden. “We gotta know about Frank Sinatra and Agustín Lara.” He goes on to lament how “exhausting” it can be attempting to be “more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans.”

Whether this philosophical stance was imprinted on the young Selena Quintanilla explicitly, or whether the scene was the product of the writers room, it’s abundantly clear that the singer and her band sought to incorporate two worlds into their music. The same can be said for the music and events curated by Sonido Clash. Most recently, Sonido Clash threw a party in celebration of the late Selena’s 46th birthday. The sold-out bash at Back Bar in San Jose featured a lookalike contest, music from a local cumbia band and multiple Latin-inflected DJ sets.

The Sonido Clash Crew.

Although the events Pérez and Zepeda produce with their partners—Thomas Aguilar, Angel Luna and Quynh-Mai Nguyen—all tend to have a dance and hip-hop bent, the influences extend to other avenues of culture. Over the course of an hour-long conversation, Pérez and Zepeda bounce around from the San Jose-based founder of Lowrider Magazine to local gutter punk and powerviolence acts. They reminisce about hunting for obscure music at the Berryessa Flea Market, spinning freestyle at house parties and listening to Los Tigres Del Norte in their childhood homes.

Pérez and Zepeda have been drawn to different sounds, from punk and metal to funk and soul. However, of late, Zepeda says, the music he makes under his DJ moniker Turbo Sonidero, and as a member of Corazón Salvaje, there is one constant—cumbia.

“I was playing punk before,” Zepeda says. “I was doing hip-hop beats and rap beats and one day, I was like, ‘I wanna make people dance.’” By incorporating a cumbia beat into his productions, he was able to find a middle ground between his family’s home state of Puebla, Mexico, and his home in San Jose. Recently, he and fellow Sonido Clash affiliate Luna—a.k.a. the emcee Mextape—put out a collaborative project, Vatos, under the moniker Turbomex. On the full-length album, Mextape spits rhymes mostly in Spanish, with some English and Spanglish mixed in, while Turbo Sonidero handles production. Listen to the project and it won’t take long for you to hear the güira, chk-chking away.

Cumbia Punks: Corazón Salvaje | Cinco De Mayo Guide

YEAR-END LISTS typically hew to the comfy round number 10. And although Top 10 has a ring to it, Silicon Valley’s melting pot of musical talent fused genres, collaborated, innovated and turned out so many great LPs and EPs this year that it became a nearly impossible task to narrow it down to even the Top 15 releases, so we squeezed one more pick for a favorite 16. Here, in no particular order, are some of 2013’s best local releases.

The Bangerz: PRiSM
PriSM, the Bangerz’ second soundtrack LP for the Jabbawockeez Las Vegas stage show, showcases the crew going deeper into some amazing futuristic soundscapes. The crew has always straddled a line between throwback hip-hop and cutting edge electro-jams, but it’s all forward thinking with this release. In a sign of the times—as the line between EDM and hip-hop continues to blur—there’s a healthy dose of dubstep influence on this record, as well.

Rebelskamp: The Kill
Going into a recording studio without any written material doesn’t sound like a winning formula for an album, yet Rebelskamp produced a remarkable LP this year. They’ve gotten so good at improvisation that they don’t sound like they’re inventing the music on the spot. Yet, the spontaneity of such a freeform formula remains intact. These songs go any and everywhere, drifting through funk riffs, psychedelic space jams and crazy free-jazz. A highlight is “The Rebel,” with local rapper Dirtbag Dan freestyling a couple verses.

Philthy Dronez: Wepa Life
Up until recently, Matt Gonzales was known mostly as the go-to guitarist for local bands. (Anya and the Getdown, Raul y Mexia, Chris Reed—to name a few). Now the world gets a taste of his solo project: producing Latin-infused electro-beats under his alter-ego, Philthy Dronez. His debut EP, Wepa Life, was released on Global Bass Experience a few months back. It’s a short EP, about 15 minutes, but it’s bumpin’. It centers on the emerging new-cumbia sound, but also veers into electronic and hip-hop territory, and even some old-school cumbia.

Boboso: Grown Ass Man
There are three things Boboso raps about: food, cats and his love for the female derriere—often within the same song. Yet, he’s not exactly a comedy rapper. He can really rhyme. Plus, his production skills are top-notch: classic West Coast beats with surreal twists. The Beach Boys sample on “That Breathe In, Breathe Out Shit” is a particular highlight. Jeff Rosenstock from Brooklyn punk band Bomb the Music Industry also lays down an impressive verse on “Sartorial Panache.”

Careless Hearts: Alum Rock
Alum Rock isn’t just the latest album by Careless Hearts; it’s the culmination of five years of life-changing events. They started out a laidback Americana group, but since 2008’s Heart’s Delight, they’ve gone through some major lineup changes and played a life-changing show with punk legend, Stooges guitarist James Williamson. It shows in the roots-rock, power-pop songwriting on Alum Rock. The release rocks harder, louder and with more passion than their first two albums.

Antwon: In Dark Denim
In Dark Denim isn’t as accessible as Antwon’s prior work and takes the San Jose rapper in a new direction. His beats are grimier, the samples are darker and the lyrics are dirtier than ever. “Work 4 Me,” with its down-and-dirty hip-shaking beat and raunchy lyrics, sounds like he’s seducing the listener. All the while, Antwon’s fanbase continues to grow, with a successful run at SXSW, an appearance at Treasure Island Music Festival and two national tours during the last year.

The Albert Square: How’s Everybody’s Doings?
Last year, Sim Castro reformed his punk rock outfit the Albert Square. The songwriting is much in the same vein, subtly nuanced ’80s and ’90s post-punk-inspired, but the band’s performances are far more unhinged—a good thing. Their newfound spastic energy complements Castro’s reflective songwriting quite well. However, the strongest song, “(Proud) Parents,” is oddly the most reserved track on the EP.

The Limousines: Hush
It’s been a couple years since synth-pop duo the Limousines released their brilliant debut, Get Sharp. Despite all the views they were getting on YouTube and radio play they received, they had major problems to sort out with their label, but Hush was worth the wait: Its synth beats are dancier, the production is more refined and in place of their signature clever nihilism, Hush offers lyrics that are raw and honest. Hush was made with funds from a Kickstarter campaign that sought $30,000 but ended up raising $75,000.

Dinners: Black Rabbits
If such a thing as a San Jose “supergroup” exists, Dinners might be that band, featuring members from Worker Bee and Doctor Nurse. Dinners go into a different direction than either Worker Bee (moody indie rock) or Doctor Nurse (psychedelic folk) with lo-fi noise-pop and a heavy dose of Guided By Voices influence. At first listen, Black Rabbits sounds like the kind of four-track recording popular with ’90s indie bands, but it’s actually a quite meticulously, thoughtfully crafted album. The cover art is amazing, too.

Rey Resurreccion, M-10, Locsta Villan: First Street Sessions
Some of rapper Rey Resurreccion’s finest works are collaborations. Last year, he worked with the Bangerz to make some killer old school hip-hop tunes. This year, he got together with emcees M-10 and Locsta Villan and created the 1st Street Sessions. Together the trio has produced eight laid-back, dreamy hip-hop songs that should be on urban stations all across the country.

Raul y Mexia: Arriba y Lejos
Brothers Raul y Mexia released a fun, passionate Spanish-language album this year on Nacional Records, the current leaders of cutting-edge Latin music. Arriba y Lejos combines elements of cumbia and other traditional Latin sounds with hip-hop and electronica. The duo, who are sons of Hernán Hernández, bassist of famous Norteño band Los Tigres del Norte, has created something that both pays tribute to classic Latin music, like their father created, and all the newer American music they grew up with here in San Jose.

Sean Blak: #Basslife
Sean Blak books live hip-hop shows, puts on battle-rap events and holds a weekly Tuesday night residency, “the Trap Shop” at Johnny V’s. He’s also a prolific rapper, with a ton of lo-fi, surreal homemade hip-hop records online. His best this year is the LP #Basslife. On it, he takes some of the strangest, most intimate beats and makes them sound like outrageous club bangers.

Slime Girls: Vacation Wasteland
By the time Slime Girls came together, the chiptune scene was already well-established. Yet they’ve still been able to find their own sound within it, taking all the old Nintendo chip Gameboy sounds and mixing them with surf, punk and ska. Their latest EP, Vacation Wasteland, is a seriously fun collection of instrumental chip-rock tunes. It was originally pressed on cassette because they’re that into old technology.

David Brookings: The Maze
The Maze is David Brookings’ sixth full-length album since 2000, yet he’s still working on building his fanbase in the Bay Area. He moved to Northern California from the Memphis by way of Richmond, Virginia, in 2009, and produced his five albums before heading West. The Maze, like its five predecessors, brings together ’60s psychedelic-rock and ’80s New Wave.

Derek See: She Came This Way
The title track to Derek See’s She Came This Way is an amazing psychedelic-pop gem. At first, See, who normally plays guitar in soul group the Bang, recorded it, along with a couple other tunes, just for fun. It was good enough for an indie label to offer to release it, and they even ran out of the first pressing. It’s the kind of song that, had it been written in 1967, would have been a Summer of Love FM hit, no doubt.

Noothgrush: Split LP with Coffins
Back in the ’90s, sludge metal group Noothgrush were a pretty big deal. Along with Sleep and a few other bands, San Jose boasted a strong doom metal scene. Noothgrush just recently reformed, and they also just released a split record with Japanese metal band Coffins. The third track, “Thoth” is particularly special, as it contains spoken clips from the late, great, much beloved KFJC DJ, Cy Thoth, who died earlier this year.

Matt Gonzales is a busy man. When he’s not playing guitar for local fusion-soul group Anya and the Getdown or for hip-hop cumbia duo Raul y Mexia, he’s producing beats for his own solo Latin dance project, Philthy Dronez.

Gonzales has been performing as Philthy Dronez consistently here in the South Bay at the monthly Sonido Clash neo-Latin dance parties every first Fridays at the Pagoda Lounge. Now, Philthy Dronez is reaching for a larger audience with his debut EP Wepa Life, which will be released on Arizona label, Global Bass Experience. The release show is Friday November 1st at the Pagoda—the final show before the venue switches formats under new management.

Wepa Life is a short listen with seven songs in about fifteen minutes. It has a nice blend of Philthy Dronez’ style, which contains some classic cumbia beats with some modern dance, trap and electronica. His first single, “Don Sandia”, is one of his more traditional cumbia tracks. The content however is not so typical—it’s about a watermelon that gets all the ladies. The “watermelon” (or rather Gonzales’ friend in a watermelon outfit) made his debut during Sonido Clash’s portion of the Music in the Park. “Don Sandia” features guest vocals by Jazmin Lopez (aka Jazzy Drone).

One of the heaviest dance songs—and the farthest removed from classic cumbia—is “Ratcheta,” featuring vocals by Mexia from Raul y Mexia. “Mira Como Mueve” is the best representation to the “nu-cumbia” sound that is growing increasingly popular. Wepa Life is also strung together with a lot of clips from various radio programs and commercials. One of the best of them is the old Frito Bandito commercial for Fritos chips which closes the EP.

Philthy Dronez plays the final Sonido Clash at Pagoda Lounge on Friday November 1st with Los Macuanos. More info.