Nortec Collective and Border Music

Texas Performing Arts has brought the Nortec Collective to Austin for a show tonight at the Hogg Auditorium.  Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible is an audio/video performance that combines electronica, samples, rock, and Norteño music that mixes genres, generations, and geography to equal effect.


"As Mexico prepares its Centenial and Bicentennial celebrations in 2010, Nortec Collective is creating the country’s soundtrack for the next 100 years. More of a movement than a band, Nortec Collective started in the late 90s when several Mexican musicians began fusing norteño and techno. Since then, they have created a vibrant and uncharted brand of alternative Latin music that transcends its genre. The music is an energy and force, which commands people to shake, dance and move their way out of any inhibition and leave modesty behind. From the moment it begins, a Nortec Collective performance shocks the soul and their universal rhythms create a remarkable harmony between artists and audiences."

Leading up to the show, Ramón (Bostich) and Pepe (Fussible) participated in a brown bag luncheon at the Bass Concert Hall and a public forum with other panelists (including multi-grammy winner Joél Guzman) for stimulating, free-ranging discussions of cultural identity, geographical & intellectual borders, growing up in Tijuana, technology, copyrights, and music.  


Tijuana is a relatively new city by Mexican standards, evolving as a cultural melting pot estranged from the rest of Mexico and more closely defined by its relationship with the port city of San Diego, Hollywood, and music from all over the map.  While the younger people were soaking up European electronica and cutting edge music from around the world (courtesy of the massive radio broadcast towers erected by California stations), older generations were tied to the norteño styles that came from tamborazo and tejano traditions (which, of course, have their distant roots in European polka and classical music).


What Nortec Collective accomplishes now is more than simply playing one style of music on top of another.  They fuse music that speaks to different world-views and histories to create a new and exciting hybrid.  The combination of visual imagery and innovative music creates a presentation of a new Tijuana to the world, while combining the world with old Tijuana.  It is thought provoking and entertaining at the same time.  Can't wait to see them again tonight!