- What is most exciting about the scene evolving around ZZK (the night, the club, the label, the de facto movement) is how quickly it's matured from a specific kind of club track to a myriad of forms. Unlike baile funk (which Frikstailers toyed with in their inaugural release), cumbia digital has no indelible BPM stamp, no particular social requirement to fulfill. Thus we get interpretations as diverse as King Coya's wide-ranging near-worldbeat, the twisted robot salsa of El Remolon and the hypnotic, psychedelic dub-folk of Chancha Via Circuito's Rio Arriba.
Frikstailers employ touches of the traditional music particular to this sound, but in scattershot fashion, pilfering a rhythmic structure here and a flute sound there. The music they primarily owe their production signature to on Bicho De Luz is electro, that most rakish of genres. The title track buries a moody, reflective synth line beneath pounding acoustic drums, then fades it out into a bubbling, processed vocal duet that echoes the beat alongside syn-string flourishes, reminiscent of one of Yello's more whimsical moments. It's ethereal, but driving—a combination too rarely heard. "Version Tucu-Tucu" amps up the tempo and EQ contrast to reveal the great downtempo discoteca song lingering within, cycling through those punctuating rhythms with a much more tripped-out set of vocal effects, somehow weird and euphoric. It's not remixed so much as tweaked, but to great effect.
"Cumbianchamuyo" is Frikstailer's version of a breakdance track or art-of-noise beat tape, a somewhat frivolous bit of compressed glee, with a frantic rabbit vocal and the obligatory, old-school "oww." The most missable track here, but also the most shamelessly fun. After the remix comes "Dancehallete," which finds Frikstailers slowly building, then dismantling their most overt digital salsa beat to the tune of a flute far more Yusef Lateef than Andean, coupled with more of those punchy breakbeats they find so irresistible. The nod to dancehall in the title is realized by the intonation of the keyboard stabs and the ruggedness of the drum, but the overall structure and the performance here are pure electro, with multiple odd synth lines a-blazing by the hectic midpoint. Whether it's due to their origins in cosmopolitan Cordoba or just some inner muse that they've followed, Frikstailers have taken a sound as old and "Western" as hip-hop and fleshed it out brilliantly with regional touches—another welcome addition to the ZZK stable.
Tracklist 01. Bicho De Luz
02. Cumbianchamuyo
03. Bicho de Luz (Version Tucu-Tucu)
04. Dancehallete