blog
No expectations, no limitations, This is where craft and curiosity collide. I create my world of sound & sight.
I drop ten tracks you probably haven’t heard of, show a glimpse of what I uncover as I document my life in CDMX, and highlight other artists I’m tuned in to.
The Chris mix
I am an extreme left brain individual and the past mixes have been organized very right brained; disregarded the organization of genres and tempos and arranged them to challenge the listener to genre bend from one song to the other. I’ve been playing around with CDJs so about half of this week’s mix is dance music.
I befriended a local DJ in CDMX and I made a deal with him that in exchange for free content anytime he had a set at nightclub, he would teach me how to use his FLX4. It was cool for a while; getting into the nightclubs for free, meeting other DJs, having an excuse to meet new people, but my friend had some undeniable red flags as I hung out with him more. He was addicted to some hard drugs which led him to be paranoid at times. Ultimately we parted ways, but led me to search for dance music and discover my favorite Mexican DJ so far, El Nick DGO.
Jersey club and Baltimore club was my initiation into dance music, always guaranteed to get me dancing because there’s a formula to it and it works every time. But Latincore is an eclectic punchy range of amped up sounds from across Latin America.
I recommend listening with the mix feature on Spotify so you can experience fun DJ-like transitions between those genres in some of the tracks.
Documenting Mexico…
…from a project that started at Burning Man.
I almost made full recovery after getting hit by a car earlier this year, so I haven’t skated at all. Skating was my main source of excercising so when I found out about this cause, I had a reason to go out.
The organization saves hundreds of bikes from Burning Man attendees who abandon them after the festival. Their current efforts aren’t enough to save all the abandoned bikes, roughly estimating at least 5,000 this year. Just when you think the attendees couldn’t be any more out of touch, they trash the desert.
Mexico got nothin’ to do with Burning Man (except for the labor they rely on), it’s the organization that saves the bikes by repairing them and donating them across Mexico to children and adults. This cultural rourcefulness is rooted in necessity and community effort, not because they want to reduce their carbon footprint. **** {check instagram live CPM} notes that the importance of a bicycle can extend farther than a entertainment or a mode of transportation. It can be a defining part of someones character and lifestyle.
This grassroots initiative relies on the help of people who are willing to physically cross the Tijuana/San Ysidro border (the most crossed border in the world) with a bike, multiple times. It started at a parking lot down the street from the pedestrian crossing, and once crossing into Mexico, it wasn’t even a 10 minute bike ride to the other border entry where there was other organizations collecting the bikes. Two weeks before the event, I managed to secure my Mexican birth certificate and no longer had to deal with visas or long wait times. I could walk into Mexico no problem, and theoretically the same coming back.
These days it seems like the world is ending, but mine is just getting started.
Artist in focus
Happy Snacks https://palida-studios.com
Recent themes of maximalism have have began emerging in Mexican fashion and art spaces. Mexico’s natural aesthetic holds it so closely that it has made it its own; meximalismo. It holds true and is a great way to make an attempt to encapsulate Mexico’s art, culture, and society.
There are always giant discussions within the fashion world, and I am not actively paying attention, I really just gravitate towards what I like and what suits me.
Palida Studios’ direction takes heavy inspiration from the the everyday life experienced in El Estate de Mexico (from Palida Studios’ designers Jorge Los and Maccda); The visual elements of graffiti and deterioration within urban areas of el barrio. Their counterculture approach combats high end fashion, with many pieces that are reinterpreted with upcycled clothing de la paca. Palida Studios combats the narrative that devalues items for simply being made in Mexico.
Every big successful clothing brand stands out with some kind flare; I personally like the way they accessorize their hats, using barbed wire across the front of the hat. It’s interwoven in the hat so that it doesn’t hurt the user, but not for anyone else that gets too close. This choice of design catches the eye and I find to be a significant indicator for an emerging brand looking to break the mold with a purpose.
Like Crap Clothex (Mexican designer who also reinterprets upcycled clothing also featured on previous blog posts), I saw it fit my personal style and had to buy a piece of my own. Their clothing can be found in one of the most popular tianguis in CDMX, the tianguis de Lagunilla. A good friend of mine has his own shop in Lagunilla where he sells designer, and I often go to say wassup, hang out, drink some miches, and I never noticed his shop was set up in front of Palida Studios. I talked with the brother of one of the creators at his shop, took some pics, and managed to get a good deal on one of the hats.
Palida Studios has recently entered a new height by releasing a new collection that is a collaboration with Nike. While many praise the big success with the recent collab, many believe it is not faithful to the values of its original intention. The hat from the collection is priced at $1200 pesos (roughly $70 dollars). I personally like how the neon green carries the collection’s color palette, but compared to the hat I paid for (through a hook up that costed me $500 pesos or roughly $28 dollars), a brand built with the identity of el barrio in mind wouldn’t charge that much. I would assume pricing of their items reflect Palida as a serious, fashionable brand. I get it, there shoots and social media content is also quality work.
The brand is pretty new, but they are on track to becoming an international brand. The style is unmatched to anything else out right now. I really love my hat, even if I have accidentally hurt myself a couple times with it.