Friends from Mexico have been turning me on to a form of electro-fusion music called "musica tribal" for the past year or so. We featured a Mun2 video about one Texas superfan on Boing Boing's Virgin America in-flight TV channel not long ago.
This weekend, the folks behind the TelMexHub conference series in Mexico hipped me to 3BallMTY and Los Parranderos, and I'd like to share their dopeness with you in this post. Turn up your speakers now.
Tribal is highly danceable remix art, combining cumbia, banda, and other indigenous pop music forms from Mexico with hard techno beats. The dance/hype troupe Los Parranderos (who often perform with 3BallMTY) are famous for constructing comically -proportioned pointy cowboy boots—the term "pointy boots" has become somewhat synonymous with musica tribal.
In the video embedded at the top of this post, an English-subtitled interview with 3BallMTY. They're a trio of very talented teens from Monterrey, Mexico: DJ Erick Rincon, 17 years old, DJ Sheeqo Beat, 18, and DJ Otto, who is 19. The name "3BallMTY," by the way, is a sort of text-truncation of "tribal" plus "Monterrey." At around 4:30 in this same video, there's an interview with Los Parranderos, who are from the town of Matehuala in the state of San Luis Potosí.
I am deeply bummed that I missed the chance to see these guys perform live at the TelMexhub event this week in Querétaro, but there's video from that show embedded below. Also below, I've embedded a VBS TV episode with more on "botas picudas" and musica tribal (a related photo essay in Vice mag is here, with photos by Edith Valle, including the boots shot above). The way these guys construct the boots is amazing and awesome. They use rubber hoses and screws to extend the boots to impossible lengths. The fashion trend is about a year old, and it's simultaneously hilarious and cool.
Music to download: Toy Selectah's "Mex Machine" compilation is a nice place to start, and features a track with 3BallMTY. And the funkmasters at MadDecent.com point to a free EP download from 3BallMTY here. Here's related remixing at The Fader and Generation Bass.
(Special thanks to Sarah Aguilar of TelMexhub)
Here's 3BallMTY's first "official" music video, for the single Inténtalo, featuring the pointy boots of Los Parranderos.
And finally, an Indian TV news network from India's state of Karnataka tries to make sense of it all. Pointy boots have truly gone inter-tribal.
