Tijuana Sound Machine

Tijuana's electronica leaders Nortec Collective are set to drop Bostich + Fussible Tijuana Sound Machine, due May 6 fromNacional Records. Fans are already familiar with the stylings of Bostich and Fussible as they were the masterminds behind hit tracks "Tengo La Voz", "Tijuana Bass", and "Tijuana Makes Me Happy" off the double Grammy-nominated 2005 album, Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3. The first single off the new album will be the title track.
In a statement, Pepe Mogt (aka Fussible) commented, "With Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3, we focused on fusing vocoders, synthesizers and drum machines with the Norteño flavor. This time around, we really relied more on the acoustic sound. We tried to achieve a better balance between the acoustics and the electronics. While some tracks on [that album] aren’t even a month old yet, others have been around for a couple of years. We actually wrote many of these songs while on the road promoting Tijuana Sessions.”
Nortec Collective toured extensively for that album, covering Latin America and the United States as well as Europe, Japan and Australia. Their past high-profile appearances include Coachella, Rokslide Festival (Denmark), Sonar Festival (Barcelona), Smithsonian Institute (Washington, DC), Vive Latino (Latin America's Coachella), Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Bellas Artes Palace (Mexico City), Mutek.MX (Mexico City), Ultra Festival (Miami) and Decibel Festival (Seattle). An extensive U.S. tour featuring Bostich and Fussible is planned to coincide with the new release.
"In every place we have toured to, whether it is Australia, Japan or the U.S., crowds respond differently," said Mogt. "Even in Mexico, the response changes from town to town. But when it comes down to it, they are coming to our shows for the music, no matter whether they found it through a friend or online. So they are super enthusiastic either way. The real fun challenge comes when we play at festivals with audiences that are hearing our music for the first time."
Nortec Collective notched two Grammy nominations including "Best Alternative Music Album" and "Best Recording Package", not to mention extensive praise in both the underground and mainstream music press. The group's music has appeared in commercials for Volvo, Dell, Fidelity Mutual, Edwin Jeans (with Brad Pitt), Nissan, and others as well as HBO's "Big Love" and NBC's "Friday Night Lights,” the movies Fast Food Nation and Babel, and video games "FIFA Soccer" and "FIFA Street 2." Lastly, an interactive coffee table book entitled Paso del Nortec- This Is Tijuana dedicated to the Nortec phenomena was released in the US, Mexico and Europe. The Nortec Collective is: Fussible (Pepe Mogt), Bostich (Ramón Amezcua), Panóptica (Roberto Mendoza), Clorofila (Jorge Verdín) and Hiperboreal (PG Beas). These musicians created and perform a style of music that they invented called Nortec - a fusion of Norteño ("from the North") and Techno, documenting the collision between the style and culture of electronica and traditional Mexican music.
Watch for the May issue of HARP for a review of the album.