ZZK Records

Rio Arriba is the sophomore album from Chancha Via Circuito, who molds local South American rhythms into global artistry. Rio Arriba bubbles up from the Andes like percussive lava, seething as it is soothing. Layers of drums play out like water and earth battling heat - heat brought by Chancha Via Circuito. Chancha has forged a path from his town outside the urban sprawl of Buenos Aires in the east of Argentina up across the border with Bolivia and into the Northern hemisphere where he's bringing new fans to native drum traditions. In his first release, Rodante, Chancha took cumbia into uncharted territory retrofitting the Latin rhythm for a worldly audience. With Rio Arriba, South American folklore takes the reins and, under Chancha’s steady hand, obscure backwoods rhythms take on a top shelf lifestyle as folklore hits the club. Cumbia made Chancha’s first album Rodante a stand out, Rio Arriba takes his sound primal, rooted in rhythm, but worldwide in scope. With recent remixes of The Ruby Suns (Sub Pop) and Gotan Project (Ya Basta/XL Recordings), Chancha proves his production can cross continents and pollinate. Rio Arriba annihilates the obvious - it's a fresh breeze from the city of good air flooding the urban habitat, sending you dancing upstream.

ZZK Records Presents: Cruzloma’s Mitos & Ritos, a dialogue with the past, present and future of traditional Ecuadorian music

The hostile times humanity is going through have awoken a need to get back to our roots, reclaim ancestral knowledge, and question where the excessive exploitation of natural resources has led us. We have heeded that urgent call to care for everything that seems unlimited but which is increasingly scarce. And so we have looked to the past to understand our relationship with what surrounds us and establish a dialogue between the past, the present and the uncertain idea of the future.

Applied to music, this has aroused the interest of artists and producers who use the rich folklore and traditions of Latin America to replicate that dialogue between what was and what will be. With this in mind, Mitos & Ritos (“Myths and Rites”), the debut EP by the Ecuadorian group Crvzloma, consolidates in its six songs a spirit of promoting traditional rhythms in contemporary styles, a process of reinvention and self-discovery in homage to the indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian jungle and the riches of ceremonial music, based around the bambuco style from Esmeraldas on the northern coast, and the bomba del chota and the san juanito from Imbabura province. On this EP there are also sacred prayers of the Shuar nation, called Ujaj and Anets, including ceremonies like the taking of ayahuasca and of the tzan tza, all in a mix featuring electronica, global bass and dembow.

It is a journey into mysticism, the jungle and the dancefloor, reflecting a search for musical identity that is at once contemporary and futurist. 

ZZK Records Presents Ghetto Kumbé Clubbing Remixes. There’s no denying the power of the drum. It’s primal, it cuts across borders and most importantly, it makes you want to move. Ghetto Kumbé don’t just understand that—they celebrate it, and it’s why the tambor was at the heart of the Bogotá-based trio’s 2020 self-titled debut album. Rooted in mysticism and the Afro-Caribbean rhythms they’d grown up with all their lives, the critically acclaimed LP thrillingly updated the traditional Latin template, folding in elements of modern hip-hop, house and bass music while also delivering a transportive Afro-futurist vision. On Clubbing Remixes, that vision has been further amplified, as Ghetto Kumbé—who were already one of Colombia’s most prominent alternative acts—have now gone fully global; enlisting an all-star roster of artists from four different continents, they’ve put together a fresh version of their debut album that’s been specifically geared to the world’s diverse slate of dancefloors. As the title implies, the new LP is meant for the club, which is why Ghetto Kumbé have turned to Latin music heavyweights like Trooko—a multiple Grammy winner whose resume includes work with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Residente—and Monte (a.k.a. Bomba Estéreo founder Simón Mejía), along with top-shelf DJs like Nickodemus and Uproot Andy, two NYC artists who’ve spent decades championing Afro-Latin rhythms. True to the LP’s global spirit, the record also includes reworks from batida maestro DJ Firmeza, fellow Afro-Portuguese outfit Studio Bros and Parisian house groovers Les Enfants Sauvages, plus genre-blurring remixes from sonically adventurous Colombians Montoya (himself another ZZK artist) and Cero39. Even the artwork on Clubbing Remixes is a remix, as Ghetto Kumbé have tapped Uganda’s Denzel Muhumuza to transform the cover of their debut album into a new, explicitly Afro-futuristic illustration. Depicting a strong Black face and glowing neon fauna beneath a sparkling moonlit sky, the fantastical image speaks to both the ritual magic and Afro-indebted heritage of Ghetto Kumbé’s music, and thanks to Clubbing Remixes, the group’s passionate, drum-fueled sounds will soon be blasting out of sound systems around the globe. Ghetto Kumbé Clubbing Remixes will be released on all digital platforms on November 9th, 2022, with a double vinyl release to follow on March 31st, 2023.

Karen y Los Remedios: blending cumbia and existentialism

Behind Karen’s pulsating spectral voice lies vulnerability, contemplation and longing. Chameleon-like foundations explore cumbia in its many forms, crossing the continent with Norteño airs, pitched-down rebajados, psychedelia and even traditional Peruvian music, taking in ballads, Afro-Latin percussion, reggaeton and the more electronic sounds of dream-pop, trip hop and downtempo.

A mystical, motley mixture, the ideal soundscape to fight the voices in your head while you melt on the dancefloor and scare away the ghosts of your past, your body surrendering to the dance.

That’s pretty much Karen y Los Remedios, the project led by Ana Karen G Barajas, an artist and arts and social sciences researcher born in Mexico City and raised in Guanajuato, in the company of Mexico City native Jonathan Muriel (Jiony) and guitarist Guillermo Berbeyer (Z.A.M.P.A.), who after many years on Mexico’s alternative scene decided to get together and bring this existential cumbia project to life.

"My music is a landscape for you to enter your own journey," sings Luiza Lian's crystalline voice after the ceasing of a sonic collage that blends a lament on the keyboard, church bells, hummed vocals, distorted speeches, syncopated beats, and a striking bass line. "Minha Música" (My Music) is our first encounter with 7 Estrelas| quem arrancou o céu? (7 Stars | who tore off the sky?), the fourth album of the São Paulo-based artist, and her third collaboration with french/brazilian music producer Charles Tixier.

Nearly five years after the celebrated Azul Moderno, the duo returns to the scene they materialized before a period of darkness that rewrote Brazil's history. And this new visit pushes the boundaries even further with resources that the singer-songwriter had only started exploring on the previous record. The following tracks, "Tecnicolor" (featuring the only guest appearance on the album, as Luiza is joined by singer Céu) and "Homenagem" (Homage), continue to explore this new horizon, which becomes increasingly bizarre and deceptive.

In addition to layering noises and electronic elements over her musicality, Luiza also explores the range of her vocals by digitally distorting them. The first tracks are just the initial steps in this new work: a profound reflection on how we distort our lives based on false reflections we see both digitally in our use of social media and materially in an increasingly consumerist society. The new album recreates this artificial context in an almost caricatured way, deliberately exaggerated distortions to generate the estrangement we should feel towards the values we cherish and reject based on this false reality we force ourselves to believe in.

While Azul Moderno invited us on a journey of spiritual purification, now Luiza summons us to another voyage, one that confronts the darker side of our nature in songs that resonate with politics and mysticism without distinguishing one from the other, such as "Forca" (Force), "Cobras" (Snakes), and "Viajante" (Traveler), and then leads us towards the light in existentialist yet renewing songs ("Eu Estou Aqui" (I Am Here), "Desabriga" (Shelterless), "7 Estrelas" (7 Stars), and "Deságua" (Unleash)), making the end of the album more playful and lucid, hopeful and danceable as it concludes its reflection.

Composed in 2019 and reworked over four years, the album is another release from the RISCO label in partnership with ZZK Records and will be launched during a series of shows in August at Sesc Pompeia, performances in which Luiza delves even deeper into the exploration she proposed in the live version of her previous album. 

ZZK Records Presents: Luzmila Carpio’s Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol The iconic voice of Luzmila Carpio rings out from the Andes, spreading messages of indigenous struggle, female empowerment and unceasing love for both the people and planet around us. An undeniable icon of Bolivian Andean culture whose career spans multiple decades, Luzmila has released more than 25 albums (there’s a reason that Rolling Stone described her as”one of the most prolific indigenous singers of South America”), inspiring millions while singing in both her native Aymara-Quechua language and Spanish. Yet Luzmila Carpio isn’t someone who’s content to simply rest on her laurels; she continues to take risks—and push her music into vibrant new soundworlds. On new album Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol (her first LP in a decade), she’s teamed up with Argentinian producer Leonardo Martinelli (a.k.a. Tremor), a ZZK veteran who’s spent the bulk of his career finding the common ground between Latin American folk rhythms and modern electronics. Building off the momentum created by 2015’s Luzmila Carpio Meets ZZK collection—in which her music was reworked by not only Tremor, but standout electronic artists like Nicola Cruz, Chancha Vía Circuito and El Búho—this new album is meant to stretch across genres, generations and continents, with Luzmila’s sonorous, occasionally birdsong-inspired vocalizations gracefully gliding amongst ambient textures, programmed beats and (of course) a bevy of traditional instrumentation from around the globe. Over the course of the LP, Bolivian charangos and quenas sit comfortably alongside the sounds of harmonium, violin, acoustic and electric guitar, Argentinian bombo leguero and sacha guitar, Armenian duduk and a litany of Asian percussion. Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol—which will be accompanied by a full length documentary—might not sound like previous Luzmila Carpio releases, but on a spiritual, political and lyrical level, her core values remain unchanged. A native of Bolivia’s Potosí region, she’s long been a beacon for indigenous communities in not just her home country, but throughout Latin America, her voice inspiring joy and pride amongst ancient peoples whose culture and inherent beauty are often overlooked. Her pursuit of music—a field traditionally dominated by men in Andean communities—long ago made her a pillar of women’s empowerment, but Carpio has also been a vocal proponent for social change, using her influence to advocate not just for the rights of women, but for the protection and increased visibility of all indigenous people. Yet it’s the planet itself that Carpio is most passionate about, and she’s devoted much of her new album to conversations with Mother Earth and Father Sun, whom she refers to as Pachamama and Tata Inti. In a time of acute environmental turmoil, it’s more important than ever to find harmony with our surroundings, and Carpio has purposely planned for the unveiling of her new LP to coincide with the June 21 solstice, while the record’s release date falls on September 21—the date of the September equinox. There 's an ancient magic flowing through Carpio’s music, one forged through millennia of ceremony, ritual and communion with nature. On Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol, that magic feels more vibrant than ever before, whether she’s joyously referencing sacred traditions (“Kacharpayita”), pondering loss and regret (“Requiem para un Ego”), talking to birds (“Ofrenda de los Pájaros”) or paying tribute to the divinity of the natural world (“La Alegría del Gran Venado”). Through it all, Carpio exudes a palpable sense of wonder, her optimism (and reverence for all that exists beyond the everyday) undimmed by even the most seemingly insurmountable challenges. Pachamama and Tata Inti may be the central characters of Inti Watana: El Retorno del Sol, but it 's Carpio herself who emerges as the album 's most inspiring figure.

ZZK Records presents Mito y Comadre’s Guajirando, a journey into the reinvention of traditional Venezuelan music For years the ancestral riches of the folklore, culture and traditions of the indigenous peoples of Latin America have withstood the passing of time and the different impositions and trends of an increasingly globalized world that seems intent on pushing them into oblivion. Their fight to stay true to their roots and preserve their legacy means there is more and more interest in sharing these treasures with the world. Guajirando comes from this interest in finding recognition in our roots. This is the debut record from Mito y Comadre, the Venezuelan synth-pop and electronic roots group who with these nine previously unreleased songs take us on a journey through the sights and sounds of their country. The fusion of electronic sounds pays homage to a rarely explored music, one that is profoundly rooted in the territory, creating a dialogue between native percussions and rhythms such as the quitiplás, the malembe and the quichimba of Barlovento, the macizón and perra of the Caribbean coast, the calypso of the heartland, the flauta guajira and the gaita oriental, among other instruments. Backed by machines, electronic elements and the production of Grammy winner Christian Castagno (Bomba Estéreo, Systema Solar, Iggy Pop, Arcade Fire), they seek to bring visibility to these traditional rhythms with contemporary tendencies, creating a visionary fusion that places them on the scene as one of the most promising proponents of experimental Venezuelan music today.

El Nido: a welcoming embrace in uncertain times The world changed forever in the second quarter of 2020. The life we were used to ceased to be, as we were overcome by constant fear, distrust in all that surrounded us and a fatalist attitude towards the world we lived in. With the pandemic came lockdown, mandatory isolation for months, empty streets, face masks, hand sanitizer, the fear of going out, an absurd roll call of Covid fatalities, the daily tension of not knowing when it would all end and the urge to “get back to normal,” something that certainly never happened. Out of that pandemic saturation and that urge for “normality” came 'El Nido' (“The Nest”), the third album by Italy-based Colombian producer Montoya, who describes this record as “becoming virgins of destiny again, facing up to that fatalist world and creating that longing for tranquility. Savoring that moment prior to the pandemic, that instant when the most important thing wasn’t the immediate reality or the global situation.” Montoya sees 'El Nido' as that quiet place that you think of when you close your eyes; it is a beach or a mountain, a sunrise or a sunset, a wave in the sea refreshing your body, or an almost-whispering wind that immediately silences everything around you. On his previous records, 'Iwa' in 2015 and 'Otún' in 2019, his work as a producer prevailed, feeding the growing wave of Latin American electronica, fusing IDM and techno with indigenous root music, Andean folklore and rhythms from the tropical Caribbean coast and ancestral Pacific in terms of instrumentation. But on 'El Nido' Montoya splits the balance, offering us five merely instrumental tracks and six collaborations with Latin American artists, including Colombians Nidia Góngora on “Soñé,” Montañera on “Sierra” and Pedrina on “Nubecita.” It also features Mexican artist Pahua on “Flor del Mar,” the Peruvian Lara Nuh on “El Faro” and the Franco-Venezuelan La Chica on “Palosanto.” Starting from the name itself (“The Nest”), an evocation of home, 'El Nido' is also a Filipino municipality on the island of Palawan, a place that turned out to be Montoya’s last live experience before the pandemic. That place with crystal clear seas and white sand became the scene and starting point for this work, reflecting on the abstraction of a chaotic world and proposing blurred destinations with each song, like places that exist within memories when we close our eyes, letting us inhabit them, for a couple of minutes at least. On the other hand, it’s a record that approaches love; as a yearning and a refuge, as a guide and an anchor, but also as a rhetorical figure that makes us vibrate and elevates us, while at the same time keeping us grounded and letting us settle in the place that we can use as our shelter. 'El Nido' will be released on July 7th, 2023 on ZZK Records

Following his collaboration with Nicolas Jaar's Clown & Sunset label, Cruz has self-produced and self-recorded this landmark album. ‘Prender el Alma’ is a new strain of Latin American music Cruz calls ‘Andes Step’. Influenced by new digital technology, blended with local influence, Cruz builds his tracks layer by layer, instrument by instrument, drum by drum, exploring local indigenous and Afro-cosmologies in a modern setting. From atmospheric opener ‘Sanacion’, the 10-track album journeys through short, sharp acoustic guitar riffs on ‘Puente Roto’ and the percussive ‘La Mirada’, to the electronic ‘Prender el Alma’. Down-beat ‘Equinoccio’ gets a vocal kick from Ecuadorian singer Huaira, ending with the blissful, lo-fi ‘Cocha Runa’ featuring Tanya Sanchez. ‘Prender el Alma’ ebbs and flows through a range of production of local sounds, feeling like a digital awakening. This digital revolution is spreading through Latin America like wildfire, and nowhere is this more exciting than in the heart of the continent's bustling music scene, where Nicola Cruz is leading the way. Led by forward-thinking young producers and musicians, Ecuador is beginning to experience its own digital folklore revolution. A new crop of producers and musicians are using homeland traditions and rhythms to build on a vibrant history of visual and sonic art, catapulting them into the 21st century. ZZK are at the forefront of this burgeoning music scene. With artists such as Frikstailers, La Yegros, El Remolon and Chancha Via Circuito, they are defining a new and exciting Latin American music culture.

An interest in ancestral Latin American cosmology has always run right through the music of Ecuadorian music producer Nicola Cruz. His creative process involves an attentive, careful search for the living roots and rituals that are part of South American identity—its Andean and African origins in particular—valuing its rhythms, its oral traditions, its instruments and the energy they transmit. His first record, Prender el Alma (2015) explored the development of the consciousness and spirituality, and how they connect with music. In Siku, his most recent production, Cruz continues this exploration, expanding his vision towards new stories and other cultures as sources of inspiration. A crucial aspect on this journey is his collaboration with other artists from around the world. The siku is a wind instrument of Andean origin, highly symbolic in ancestral rituals, made up of two separate, complementary parts, the arca and the ira. It is a representation of duality, an essential element of the indigenous world view, associated with involvement and complementarity, far from the binary thinking typical of western societies. That duality is reflected on this record in the coming together of sounds, whether electronic or organic, past or present, local or global. On Siku, Nicola Cruz combines instruments with symbolic, spiritual connotations, such as the sitar, the siku, and the balafon with hints of electronica. Studies of the samba, cumbia and rhythms of African, Andean and Hindu origin are combin

ZZK Records Presents TORNA #1 - ‘Hermetics’

New York. London. Berlin. These places are often regarded as electronic music’s most important hubs, but anyone who’s been paying attention during the past few years knows that the genre’s most interesting contemporary rhythms are coming out of Latin America. Reggaeton, cumbia, guaracha, raptor house… that’s just a partial list, and while these sounds have been popping on Latin dancefloors for decades, they’re no longer a strictly regional concern. Ravers around the world have developed a taste for these mutant (and usually bass-heavy rhythms), and TORNA is here to give them what they crave.

A new offshoot of ZZK—a label which has been pushing the limits of Latin music since 2008—TORNA is a new release series that’s specifically focused on the dancefloor. Its name is inspired by the concept of “La Torna”, an economic institution developed by indigenous Atacama Lickan-Antay, Aymara and Diaguita peoples (in territories now occupied by Argentina, Bolivia and Chile) with the aim of working together for the common good, for the benefit of the whole community.

This new iteration of TORNA takes a similar approach, providing a platform for groundbreaking Latin artists whose view of electronic music looks beyond the usual European and North American canon. First up is Hermetics, a Buenos Aires-based Colombian producer who’s previously appeared on powerhouse labels such as R&S, Optimo Music and Multi Culti, and has also been tapped to remix the likes of Nicola Cruz and Chancha Vía Circuito.

Curated by ZZK co-founder DJ Nim, the two-track TORNA #1 puts Hermetics’ talents front and center, along with his penchant for psychedelic atmospheres and hybridized sounds. “El Cordón Dorado” (“The Golden Cord”) taps into an ancient current of ancestral knowledge, its hypnotic Andean flute and fortified dembow evoking the magic, mysticism and wisdom that’s been passed from one generation to the next over the course of several millennia. “Uruz”—which takes its name from the second rune of the Nordic alphabet—follows a harder, darker and more dramatic path, splicing together slow-motion techno and half-time drum & bass as it evokes the archetypal tale of an untamed warrior being tested by the fires of battle.

TORNA is rooted in Latin America, but it’s aimed at dancefloors around the globe, and this is just the beginning. 

Born out of an underground Buenos Aires party and first launched in 2008, ZZK Records has spent more than a decade at the forefront of Latin American music, carving out space for artists putting a futuristic (and often electronic) spin on classic rhythms and folklore traditions. Along the way, the label spread across the globe and helped launch a few stars—Nicola Cruz, Chancha Vía Circuito, La Yegros and Son Rompe Pera among them—but ZZK’s search for new artists, sounds and perspectives is never complete. ZZK Sound Vol. 4 brings together a fresh crop of talent from across Latin America, along with a pair of choice selections from veteran acts Maga Bo (Brazil) and Tremor (Argentina). Compiled by ZZK co-founder DJ Nim—the label’s original A&R (and Chancha Vía Circuito’s older brother), he’d actually taken a five-year hiatus from the project prior to 2020—the compilation’s origins can be traced back to the early days of the pandemic. As the world went into lockdown, he put out a call for submissions, and within three months, he’d received more than 1000 tracks. Nim literally listened to them all, whittling the pile down to his 11 favorites, and after hearing his selections, Grant C. Dull—another ZZK co-founder, who runs the label’s day-to-day operations—couldn’t believe his ears. Nim had done it again. There were no notes, and no changes to the tracklist. ZZK Sound Vol. 4 was quickly put into production. While previous ZZK Sound compilations were primarily focused on the club, Vol. 4 follows a deeper, more introspective path. It’s not an ambient record—no ZZK release would be complete without drums—but the hypnotic rhythms here are far more concerned with the collective unconscious than the dancefloor. Opening with spellbinding tracks from Pawkarmayta and QOQEQA—both hailing from Perú—the compilation immediately exudes a sort of ritual magic, calling upon both African and indigenous musical traditions while tapping into modern electronic music and a uniquely Latin sense of mysticism. Sebuky, a native Ecuadorian currently stationed in Barcelona, adds a bit more low-end heft to the proceedings, and that percussive weight continues through the similarly transportive contributions of Mangle (Colombia), Cruzloma (Ecuador) and Selvagia (Perú/Argentina via México). Elsewhere, Yoyoyo transforms the cueca music of his native Chile, Akilin enlists American rapper Bomani Armah to help him explore Afro-Venezuelan traditions and Maga Bo’s “Cadê Zé”—the first Brazilian track to ever appear on a ZZK release—is a bass-loaded (albeit undeniably spiritual) banger. Galo Vermelho (Argentina) delivers a polyrhythmic lesson in digital folklore, following in the footsteps of Buenos Aires outfit Tremor—one of the first acts ever signed to ZZK—who close out the compilation with a rousing bit of almost Lynchian revelry. At this point, few music fans need to be sold on the appeal of Latin music, but ZZK, which has been operating in this sphere since long before the genre became the “next big thing,” is dedicated to the idea that the potency of these sounds extends well beyond the pop charts. Hopping between continents and recontextualizing rhythmic lineages that date back centuries, ZZK Sound Vol. 4 is both an arresting snapshot of Latin America’s electronic avant garde and a thrilling preview of its next wave.