Mix of the Week: El Búho
Finish your long weekend with this tranquil, downtempo mix of all original tunes and edits from El Búho.
Along side contemporaries such as Nicola Cruz, the Sonido Tropico collective and host of other producers spanning Europe and Latin America, El Búho is part of an exciting new wave of artists. Mixing traditional rhythms and sounds with recordings from nature and electronic beats, they are offering an innovative twist on downtempo electronic music. In the past this style could be at worst culturally insensitive and appropriative, and at best dull and boring elevator music.
By mixing it with more traditional styles such as cumbia and investing more time in the cultures where they source their samples from, these artists have created one of the freshest sounding scenes in electronic music today. Still under the radar of most of the music press, audiences have certainly responded – SoundCloud mixes routinely rack up thousands of views and comments and Nicola Cruz’s Boiler Room set is the 12th most watched of all time.
The best songs and mixes from this style evoke feelings of nature and take the listener to vast landscapes whether they be forests, mountains or oceans. This winter inspired mix from El Búho is no different. Many of the sounds you can hear throughout such as rain tapping on the ground, bird songs and leaves crunching were recorded in a “hobbit-esque” Northern English village. El Búho’s distinctive afro-latin sound is on show throughout with remixes of Grupo Canalon de Timbiqui and edits of afro-house tunes.
El Búho has the unique ability to transport the listener to another place – real or imagined. So as you recover from the long weekend and contemplate another working week, let El Búho momentarily make you forget everything and imagine being somewhere else.
