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 CIty…
…and my latest work as I lean more into the role of an artist.
With the high standards I set myself as a perfectionist with diminishing imposter syndrome, I can confidently call myself an artist. I’m not ballin’ but I can say that I had work exhibited in culturally relevant spaces and soon at a prominent art museum (Museum of Photographic Arts at The San Diego Museum of Art). Like damn, ima pop my shit cus that sounds bougie as hell.
In all honesty it's just another title; I still feel like I’m in an artistic purgatory between filmmaking, photography, and other creative avenues that deal in audiovisual spaces. One of my favorite avenues i’ve gotten into is playing around with CDJs.
I haven’t let go of photography, it’s been a tool to understand how life circulates throughout CDMX and ultimately how I should navigate through the city. For the most part I learn most about the beautiful and compassionate way of life during the moments leading up to taking the picture. Ironically most of my fotos are merely my projection of how I feel.
This isolating feeling is closely tied to the art I want to create; I don’t know whether its new or a simple collaboration of mediums we are accustomed to, but my biggest creation would take place between visual, audio, digital, and physical spaces. Something special that never falls into one category. Even within one category there are a vast amount of variation between conceptual practices that go unexplored. Take for example visual creations; we have grown accustomed to understand a camera can either take a photo or a video that no one questions what other potential can be found between those two techniques. My way of putting it simple is if we believe to get from zero to one is just one number, we will continue to miss all the infinite numbers in-between from one and two and so on. There are things I can create that live between photo and video (and other mediums) and in doing so, I venture into places no one else goes and ask questions no one has answers to. I hope I can convince the curators in charge of the museum of my next piece being more than just a photo.
These days it seems like the world is ending, but mine is just getting started.
Artist in focus
Palida Studios - Clothing Brand 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.