South America Uncovered: Part 1

South America Uncovered: Part 1

20 August, 2007 | 8.25AM

• Written by: Felipe Javier
• Filed under: Music News: south america

Beatportal wanted to find out more about the exciting burgeoning electronic music scene of South America, because it’s the land of hot rhythms and a continent full of passion for music. Our objective was to dig deeper into this colourful corner of the world and to find out more about the exciting things that are happening in this relatively new scene.

In part one of our South America Uncovered series, Beatportal correspondent Felipe Javier Nadeau Martinez investigates the local DJ schools of Argentina and Chile, including two of its most prestigious DJ institutes - Escuela Sonica in Buenos Aires and DJ School in Santiago.

He also meets one of South America’s brightest young DJs, Flor Martinez.

The New School

Gustavo Rosas is a loyal follower of the electronic music scene and runs Sonica DJ academy in Buenos Aires, a city full or romance and melody.

He told us a brief history about his school.

¨The Sonica school in Buenos Aires is one of the most important in Latin America, because we have produced a lot of great artists like DJ Flor Martinez, winner of SAMC 2007,” he tells Beatportal.

The annual SAMC (South American Music Conference) is the continent’s most prestigious electronic music gathering and attracts big names from all around the world.

“Also a lot of other interesting people have come from Sonica like Alvaro Obregon and Gabriel Bercovich, both former participants of the Red Bull Music Academy.”

The Sonica school opened six years ago, and now has a digital record label, a podcast and is considered one of the most prestigious places to study electronic music in Argentina.

It offers courses on everything related to the scene, from typical mixing courses to the most advanced classes about the latest software.

They also offer very specific courses, including very specific courses such as the ‘Creation and Programming of VST Plug Ins’.

The Sonica school has an outstanding level of organisation and professionalism, which can be seen by the number of great artists that it has produced and from the wide range of electronic disciplines that the school offers.

It’s also a pioneer of internet-related courses in South America, and offers classes in both Spanish and Portuguese. English classes will be available soon.

The Old School

Santiago, Chile is one of the most technologically advanced cities in South America.

It’s also home to one the continent’s oldest DJ institutes, the DJ School run by Wask & Tressor aka brothers Andrés and Patricio Salinas.

Both are very respected individuals in the Latin American scene.

They’re also the brains behind one of the most interesting new South American labels, DNW Records [listen to the label’s releases in the player below].

Andrés Salinas, aka DJ Wask has experienced the music scenes of Spain, Germany, USA, Colombia, Argentina, Brasil, Peru, Ecuador and knows a great deal about Latin America’s.

“DJ School is one of the oldest schools in South America and was created in 1998, by DJs for DJs,” he comments to Beatportal.

“DJ School also has the advantage of working with the latest equipment and software manufacturers including brands like Pioneer, M-Audio and Ableton.

“Our school has also produced some great DJs like Paloma Quick (Alexi Delano’s studio partner), Ale Reeves, Electra, Campbell and many others great DJs and producers.”

When we ask Wask [pictured] about the local music and DJ scene he has a very clear opinion.

“In South America we are very far away from the economic point of view if you compare us to clubs in Europe or North America, but the DJs here and there are very similar in terms of technique - that’s why many South American DJs are successful in Europe.”

“In South America the emerging scene has a lot of strength.

“If you look at countries like Ecuador there’s a lot of motivation and euphoria about electronic music, and it’s a pleasure to play there because the people are so turned on.

“There’s also a very, very developed scene in Peru with a number of excellent DJs.

“Also, in Argentina the scene is already consolidated although it is somewhat a closed scene.

“Meanwhile Colombia has a great house music scene and the people there are wonderful.”

On DJs in South America, Wask also says that “In South America there are excellent DJs and producers like DJ Fist in Colombia, Carlos Benitez from Ecuador, Felipe Valenzuela from Chile and so many others.”

The Talent

The talented and beautiful DJ Flor Martinez [pictured] is one of the most famous former pupils of Sonica school and won this year’s SAMC.

She tells us about her vision for electronic music in this corner of the world.

“Well, here in Latin America we don’t have too many resources to spend on big parties like they do in Europe or North America,” she says.

“But with the small amount of resources that we have here, we were able to make great advances in the scene, and the will and passion of the people here is our biggest strength.”

This new diamond from Buenos Aires is an avid follower of the tech house and minimal genres and says that since she began her career as a DJ, she has seen the local scene constantly develop.

“Progressive house is still very powerful here and it has been adapting to the actual times, but minimal is gaining a lot of terrain and we have to keep an eye on this.”

For her, the greatest electronic music exponents of Latin America are still names like “Hernan Cattaneo, Martín García and Romina Cohn, to name some.”

Latin Blood

From the perspective of both the fans and DJs in Latin America, the scene is getting stronger everyday.

There are not a lot of resources but the strength and passion of the people in South America, the DJs and producers, is for sure the continent’s greatest contribution to the electronic music world.

It’s no wonder that the world’s biggest DJs consistently name South America as one of their favourite places to spin, because of its people.

With their irreverent humbleness and a joy for life and music, the scene in South America is a young, almost adolescent culture.

But its energy and passion is here to stay and no doubt will continue to contribute to the global electronic music scene.

Next week in South America Uncovered: We investigate to continent’s hottest clubs and region’s fascination with psy trance

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