I know very little about the underground scene in Santiago de Chile where Ojodeapolo records originates – just what some DJ friends say when they pass through, and they don’t pass through all that often. But nestled between tracks from Deep House mainstays Rick Wade and Chicago’s K Alexi Shelby are two samples from that homegrown Chilean scene. If they’re in any way representative of the scene as a whole, we’re probably going to be getting status reports from down there a lot more often.
First comes Jorge C., who owns Ojodeapolo and used to record under the name Receptor. Jorge’s “Baile” is the kind of laid back junk boogie I love. I can’t really put a firmer label on it than that – it’s often called jazzy because of the drums, but usually features Reggae-style reverb and short brass samples, like chill hip hop. Overall it gives you this disconnected, cosmic feel, like a crystal TV antenna picking up Saturday night party radio from an alien species.
Jorge usually assembles a pretty top notch ensemble on his records, from remixers (Hieroglphyic Being aka Jamal Moss on El Effekto, DJ Sprinkles on 2010’s A Little Beat and Chicago Skyway on Trash Fantasy/Strom) to collaborators. Here Rick Wade contributes a unexpectedly slow, irresistibly funky and strangely poppy track called “Darling Your Love”. The record closes out with the second Chilean production. The sublime “Faraon” from Sebastian Mella aka Fantasna features bouncy acid beats and dramatic, disordered sine waves of sound layered atop each other. A deliriously fun and eclectic package.
[…] The Chilean-Midwest Deep House Connection: Rick Wade, K Alexi and Jorge C. on the Combo EP […]