Music lineup
É. Arenas
Eduardo Arenas is a founding member of Los Angeles based psychedelic G-funk band Chicano Batman. Under his solo project É Arenas, he is pioneering the resurgence of the 90’s cumbia-quebradita with the release of several 45s including La Fila de Tommys and Mar Iguana. His full band, É Arenas & Las Iguanas del Mar, put on electrifying live performances filled with mosh pits and crowd surfing.
La Perla (Bogota, Colombia)
La Perla is a trio focused on the traditional musical heritage of the Colombian Caribbean. Karen, Giovanna and Diana began playing in 2014 after years of individual experience in the interpretation of gaitas, hand-drums and folk singing.
In 2015 they won first prize at the Festival de Gaitas de Ovejas, a legendary Gaita contest-festival in Sucre, Colombia that had never been awarded to a band from Bogotá and was being awarded for the second time in their over 30 years of history to female artists. Two years later they began touring outside their country with a first visit to Mexico and eventually to Chile, the US and Europe where they have continued to visit with their powerful lie show.
"La Perla reinvents Colombian traditional music". - Metropoli Abierta (Spain)
"La Perla, that powerful ensamble from Bogota, represent the ultimate Colombian folkloric and contemporary girl power trio". - Vice
Orchestra Gold
Behind Oakland CA-based ensemble Orchestra GOLD’s original sound is a decade-long story of knowledge, respect, and collaboration between Mariam Diakite of Mali and Erich Huffaker of Oakland. Blending the traditions of Mali and American Rock/Funk with a retro feel, OG represents a world of powerful cross-cultural experience. OG offers a kaleidoscope of magical sound deeply rooted in the past while boldly blazing towards the genre-bending future.
“...pure fire... I want to see this band so bad”
-- BOB BOILEN, HOST of ALL SONGS CONSIDERED / NPR TINY DESK
“They are grounded in tradition and moving the conversation of African diasporic music forward. The album {Medicine} implores the listener to join in and get lost in the magic.”— CHICO MANN, HERE LIES MAN | ANTIBALAS
Cumbiatón
Founded by Dj Sizzle Fantastic and Normz la Oaxaqueña, Cumbiatón has rooted itself in the beautiful barrio of Boyle Heights, CA and has branched out to cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and New York. Cumbiaton’s vision in all 4 cities is to center womxn, trans, and queer people of color both on the dance floor and in the Dj booth. They center their collective experiences to create events by us, for us. "We do this because la Cumbia es Cultura."
mediopicky (Dominican Republic)
Pablo Alcantara “mediopicky” is a producer, performer and DJ from the Dominican Republic, mixing sounds of bedroom pop, urban and electronic music with Afro-Caribbean genres. His 2022 self-titled album turned the heads of fans and critics alike to its experimental approach to urbano.
He was recently named one of Pitchfork’s 25 New and Rising Artists, as well as a Nominee for the 2023 Latin Grammy Awards, shaping the future of music.
He’s worked with the likes of Jarina de Marco, Sango, Diego Raposo and has shared the stage with C Tangana, Bad Bunny, Tokischa, Vicente Garcia and More.
Jeremy Sole (KCRW)
Jeremy Sole is on a mission to show how music is a singular universal language, and that each culture’s rhythms and melodies are no more than slang–different accents of the same mother tongue. His DJ sets, remixes and original compositions juxtapose world sounds and experimental beats into a sonic ritual – a celebration of life out loud.
Jeremy has had the honor of sharing the stage and the studio with hundreds of his creative inspirations, including Roy Ayers, Ben Harper, Tony Allen, Stevie Wonder, Seu Jorge, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Parliament, Lee Scratch Perry, and Quantic. Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio1), widely known as the most influential tastemaker of our generation, listed Sole as “#2 DJ OF THE YEAR 2011” at Peterson’s prestigious “Worldwide Awards”. Sole’s DJ performance at Coachella 2012 played a large part in further embedding his name as a pioneer in the burgeoning “Global Bass” scene. Sole was the last DJ to open for Ray Charles, deejayed for Sly Stone’s birthday party, and had the distinct honor of mixing at the California Democratic Party’s Election Night Celebration – playing for over 10,000 people at the exact moment when Barack Obama officially became the 44th President.
Sole spent most of 2006 in the studio producing with Ms. Lauryn Hill. After hearing him mix, she asked if he had ever considered getting into radio, “because this is the music the people need to hear”. A few months later, KCRW called to ask him that exact same question, and he agreed to join the ranks of what New York Times dubbed the “most influential radio station in the country,”. You can tune into Sole every Wednesday at midnight in Los Angeles on 89.9 KCRW (or worldwide, streaming and archived at www.kcrw.com/jeremysole).
Niño Francois
Reppin Collectivo Mafia Tropical (SFV x LA)
Niño has been working hard to unleash TRAlicious tracks to inspire that culo to shake on the dance floor
He tends to stick more to the traditional gritty raw sounds that perreo and cumbia have to offer which he combines with other global music genres to bring forth his unique Tropical Sound.
MILPA
Milpa is a collective of multi-instrumentalist, composers, poets, and cultural artist from the Inland Empire (San Bernardino/Riverside). The band explores the world of folkloric rhythms from Son Jarocho to Conga, Caribe to Angola, Pacífico beats, and tropic rodas. Milpa’s diverse energy has remained rooted to Afro-Indigenous music, poetry, dance, and community since 2009.
El Santo Golpe
El Santo Golpe better translates to The Mighty Hit, the feeling that we all get when we experience a powerful sense of joy, an unexpected punch of happiness as we connect with a song, a rhythm, movement, art, and an experience in our lives that brings is us peacefulness and alegría!
El Santo Golpe is a one-of-a-kind musical spectacle that originated in Riverside, California in 2016, formed by a group of close friends, family, and fellow artists. All share a vision and love for the music that now creates El Santo Golpe.
El Santo Golpe has one main goal, to use their music as universal language to help close gaps between cultures, genres, ages, and beliefs, creating a worldwide community where we can all dance, sing, laugh and forget about our daily troubles.
La Papaya Club
Founded by DJ Eleanora, Dj Quilo and the late-great Nectali "SUMOHAIR" Diaz, La Papaya Club launched in the early months of the pandemic, originally streaming a 12 episode series on Instagram Live to promote local activism and mutual aid, while highlighting Tropical Diaspora music.
As lockdowns came to an end, the club migrated from Instagram to a number of venues throughout LA. The idea behind the sound for this party is to shine light on all the different cultures within Latin America. The collective focuses on sounds like champeta, marimba, tropical and folkloric sounds. The music selection is very specific to the Afro-Latinx diaspora.
QUITAPENASQUITAPENAS, one word – all caps, four syllables – all claps, gives you a taste of their rhythmic contagion. This tropical Afro-Latin combo was born under the warm California sun. They borrow aesthetics from the radical 60s, 70s and 80s. Each song echoes a remix of history and invites one to engage in the liberating evenings of Angola, Peru, Colombia, Brazil and beyond. The name means “to remove worries.” Everybody has a “pena” and the mission of QUITAPENAS is simple: to make you dance and leave you without a worry.
QUITAPENAS was founded in 2011. The band was formed around their shared love of dance rhythms from the Tropical Afro Latin diaspora. They assembled a group of like minded friends to share the vision that went on to be QUITAPENAS. The group is made up of first generation son’s of immigrant parents from Guatemala and Mexico.