Mixtape: Dancecation

Video: Battles - "Ice Cream"

Luis Cervero, Nicolás Méndez, and Lope Serrano are CANADA: a production company and trio of Spanish filmmakers based out of Barcelona. Over the last year or so, CANADA has been behind some of pop music's most dynamic, rich, mind expanding, and always NSFW videos. To date, the peak of these filmakers' efforts has been the video for "Bombay" by El Guincho (though the Scissor Sisters' "Invisible Light" isn't far behind). The trio's most recent addition to their canon of psychedelic, nudie, lick-heavy videos is "Ice Cream" by Battles. I've never been a huge Battles fan, but the sharp, jagged, and manic rhythms of "Ice Cream" are beautifully supplemented here with CANADA's quick cuts and seemingly endless supply of questionable imagery. Watch the "Ice Cream" video after the jump, along with "Bombay" and "Invisible Light."

NSFW Video: El Guincho - "Bombay"

Despite this video's random and excessive female nudity, it's pretty amazingly made, often spilling over with creativity. Snag "Bombay" along with another Pop Negro standout "FM Tan Sexy" below. (via)

El Guincho - "Bombay" (from Pop Negro)
El Guincho - "FM Tan Sexy" (from Pop Negro)

New El Guincho - "FM Tan Sexy"

El Guincho's released another free single, "FM Tan Sexy," from his upcoming September 14th full-length, Pop Negro. Pablo Díaz-Reixa recently chatted with Frantik Mag about the record and had some incredibly specific insights to share:

"...Production is based on hi-fi aesthetics from the golden era of recordings. I did some research on radio hits/big selling singles in North America, South America, England and Spain in the late 70′s, 80′s and early 90′s. I found out that a massive percentage of these hits were engineered (sometimes also produced) by just around 40/50 different guys.

I started studying what makes them different but also what they had in common and I found out some really interesting coincidences. The reverbs they used (except for more 'so-eighties' kind of tracks, all the rest were more keen on using different tap tempo delays as verbs rather tan proper springs/halls); the backing vocals production (there are super interesting coincidences between Michael Jackson/Quincy, U2, Bryan Ferry/Rhett Davies era productions, Mariah Carey/Walter Afanasyev, Nile Rodgers, Teddy Riley, Paco Trinidad in Spain, etc.); the way most of these guys used line + reamping style instead of mic’ing everything when tracking; the way they used stereo image and how they distributed sounds on space (this is where I found less coincidences and was therefore more inspired). I mean, I could go on and on about this if you want, I’ve been obsessed with this for last 3 years..."

Read the rest of the interview here.

El Guincho - "FM Tan Sexy" (from Pop Negro)

El Guincho - "Bombay"

El Guincho, otherwise known as Spanish musician Pablo Díaz-Reixa, released a new single from his forthcoming LP Pop Negro a few weeks back and the song, "Bombay," is quite the doozy. Dominated by a steel drum melody, a reverby wall of shakers and a thunderous bass drum, Díaz-Reixa uses his knowledge of Latin and African polyrhythms to transport the listener to a tropical paradise dripped in funk and dance music. Pop Negro is out September 14th via Young Turks.

El Guincho - "Bombay" (from Pop Negro)