Grupo Jejeje

Grupo Jejeje

Grupo Jejeje Rebajadas Por Sonido Dueñez

Discos Rolas

***Discos Rolas presents Gabriel Dueñez aka Sonido Dueñez’s rebajada mix Grupo Jejeje’s debut eponymous album. Dueñez (born 1947) began DJing as a sonidero at age 13 and is the creator of Monterrey, Mexico’s unique cumbia sound. He is a well-known collector of vallenata, Colombian cumbia, and sonidero records. Dueñez invented cumbia rebajada—dramatically slowed down cumbia—by accident when his turntable’s motor malfunctioned and pitched down the records. After his fans asked for more “rebajadas,” Dueñez modified his turntable to slow down the records and began making rebajada compilations on cassette. Despite being a pioneer of the genre, Dueñez humbly continues to make his rebajada cassettes from home and sell tapes from his stand on the Bridge del Papa over the Río Santa Catarina in Monterrey.Dueñez has releases on Peerless label’s gold and platinum compilation LPs and is featured in Mirjam Wirz’ Ojos Suaves, Amanda Watkins’ Cholombianos, Vice’s “The Evolution of Cumbia Music in Monterrey,” and elsewhere.At Discos Rolas’ invitation, Dueñez made his first trip to the United States to perform at the label launch and Grupo Jejeje release party and participate in an artist conversation with Grupo Jejeje in Los Angeles. Dueñez created the first rebajada of an entire album. 2020 release.

Grupo Jejeje

s/t

Discos Rolas

***Deep in Cyber Aztlán, Grupo Jejeje emerged in 2014 out of a shared fascination with the darker sonic undercurrents within cumbia. Mexican-American producer Turbo Sonidero, alongside Persian-British producer Arrabalero are Grupo Jejeje aka Los Místicos de la Kumbia digging deep into the cumbia universe in search of esoteric sounds from short-lived labels, synth-driven melodies from Puebla, and loop- and sample-based kumbias editadas from San Luis Potosi.Grupo Jejeje’s music filters these sounds through their own unique immigrant experiences. While Turbo Sonidero grew up as a Mexican-American in San José’s Latino East Side in the shadow of technophilic Silicon Valley, Arrabalero came of age in London surrounded by classical and popular Persian music. In Cyber Aztlán, a reimagination of the mythical Aztec ancestral land, Grupo Jejeje soundtracks cosmic encounters between Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Meso-American cultures. After years of sharing song sketches and collaborating online, Turbo Sonidero and Arrabalero met in person in Oaxaca and Tepotzlán to work on and finalize their music together in 2018.In July 2018, Grupo Jejeje and Discos Rolas traveled to Mexico City and met with legendary artist Jamie Ruelas. Beginning in the early 1980s, Ruelas revolutionized flyer art and logos for the Mexico’s largest and most important sound systems—Polymarchs, La Changa among others. His hand-drawn imagery of space travel, sexy cyborgs, and massive sound systems defines the visual aesthetic of Mexico’s sound system culture. It is an honor to collaborate with Jaime Ruelas on the album artwork of our first release. 2019 release.