Thumping electronic dance beats weren’t the typical
accompaniment to Mexican folk music ““ at least until Nortec
came along.
DJs Panoptica and Fussible will bring Nortec, short for
Norteño Techno, to the UCLA Hammer Museum on Thursday night as
the first of four outdoor concerts in the museum’s Mixed in
Mexico series.
“Put yourself in a place ““ the most common, touristy
place in Tijuana ““ Revolution Avenue ““ where you have a
club or bar on one corner and a mariachi band playing on the other
side and you are right in the middle of these two worlds
colliding,” said Panoptica’s Roberto Mendoza.
Dating back to the 1980s when Panoptica and Fussible were in a
band together in Tijuana, they always expressed an interest in
electronic music. They began looking for a way to add a Mexican
flavor to their music, while at the same time developing a sound
that would set them apart in the music scene.
The result was fusing northern Mexican folk music like
norteño and banda sinaloense with electronic dance music.
Panoptica and Fussible became two of the five major producers on
the nortec music scene.
“When we first started, it was just an experiment,”
Mendoza said. “But then we started to develop a unique
approach to what Nortec was. We began to do parties in Tijuana and
people saw what we were doing and it began to grow three or four
years ago.”
Interest in the music began to blossom in Latin America, where
people were hungry for a new genre that reflected their postmodern
culture.
“We became very popular in Latin America because there was
not a postmodern sound out there yet ““ there weren’t
people doing electronic or experimental music,” Mendoza
said.
Panoptica went on to sign with the American label, Palm
Pictures. He attributes European and American interest in Nortec to
the fact that one aspect of the music reflects what is played in
the club scene, while adding the new element of Mexican folk
music.
“Panoptica and Fussible are among the more active
musicians and DJs coming out of Mexico,” UCLA Hammer Museum
Communications Director Steffen Böddeker said.
“They’re really on the cutting edge of music, but are
also involved with a traditional Mexican sound.”
The Mixed in Mexico series was created to complement the Made in
Mexico art exhibit that is also currently at the museum. And
although Nortec is typically heard in clubs more than in art
galleries and museums, Panoptica and Fussible have experience in
both venues, and are looking forward to being a part of the
museum’s project that is promoting Mexican art.
“The exhibition Made in Mexico is just great,”
Mendoza said. “It works really well with what we’re
doing (as artists).”
A moment that Mendoza has never forgotten was the first time
that he mixed music in front of a crowd of 50,000 people in Mexico
City. Performing for that many people was something that he had
seen rock bands do, but never thought would happen to him.
Yet despite playing in front of thousands of people in concerts
and clubs, Mendoza tends to be a homebody that doesn’t like
to be around a lot of people, preferring the creative aspect of
music to the performance side.
“If it (were) up to me, I would stay home all the time and
not do anything live because I don’t need people around for
the creative process ““ it’s just my head,”
Mendoza said. “It’s very contradictory, because as a
musician I tend not to socialize. Sometimes I don’t leave
home for a week, not even to go to the store, so it’s hard to
go out and be in front of thousands of people.”
The Nortec producers don’t look at one another as
competitors in the music business, but rather work together to
promote interest in the genre. Panoptica is looking forward to
mixing with Fussible at the Hammer Museum, as the two longtime
friends work exceptionally well together. Indeed, Panoptica sees
the future of Nortec as becoming a more collaborative effort
between producers.
Although Nortec began in Tijuana, it has given Panoptica the
chance to travel to places across the globe in order to share the
music of his native Mexico with others in an ultra-modern way.
“I like Nortec because it has made me grow up as a
musician and has enabled me to see the world,” Mendoza said.
“I never thought that I could make it before and now I have
all these opportunities.”