Saturno 2000: La Rebajada de Los Sonideros 1962-83

Mexican sonidero (DJ) Gabriel Dueñez had been playing a set for five or six hours when his turntable began overheating and playing at a slower speed. Surprisingly, the people loved it. There was something about slowed-down cumbia, cumbia rebajada as it became known, that was easier to dance to, and particularly appealed to Mexicans. With another sonidero, Marco Antonio Cedillo, perfecting a technique to pitch turntables lower on purpose, a genre was born. This compilation brings together mainly-instrumental cumbia rebajadas from across Latin America, slowed down and chosen by current sonidero DJ Lengua.

It’s a revelation, listening to cumbia rhythms melt in your ears, the aural equivalent of a Fata Morgana. At times it’s otherworldly, as with the cosmic synths of Junior Y Su Equipo’s ‘La Borrachita’; at other times, close to exotica, ‘Capricho Egipcio’ sounding like the Hollywood soundtrack to a journey up the Nile; and it can even be slightly comic when vocals are featured, as with the slurring, narcotic ‘Paga La Cuenta Sinverguenza’. Throughout, it’s all danceable, but with space, with pause between each bar, allowing each note to make impact, not too dissimilar to the job dub did with reggae.