An Interview with El Palmas: Digging into Venezuelan Music Gems
Maurice Aymard (a.k.a El Palmas) lives in Barcelona but was born in Venezuela. Music represents an important part of his life both as a fan but also as a record shop and label owner, DJ, and industry professional. His first step in the business was opening a store in Caracas called Galaktika Records that soon became a label with a sub-label, too (this last one called Apersonal Music).
Los colores de aquel trópico
Dos cosas llaman la atención de este álbum recopilatorio desde el primer momento: su nombre y su carátula. Sobre el nombre, Color de Trópico, uno de sus dos productores, Paulo Olarte aka El Dragón Criollo, anota: Hay un momento en que yo me digo: bueno, estamos enfocados en el trópico, en un lugar que es Venezuela, pero que abarca mucho más, que se refleja en países como Colombia o Panamá. Y en efecto, es todo un colorido de sonidos diversos, salsa, jazz, funk, cumbia, rock, pero envueltos por el calor del trópico.
Contento - Lo Bueno Está Aquí
Contento like to label their music “salsapunk” – smart, witty stuff with a deceptively simple home-made aesthetic. It’s salsa of a kind, but not necessarily as we know it. It could be salsa played by AI robots, but conceived by a duo with the playful sparkle of those Swiss master producer-musicians, Yello. “The sound comes from what we have to hand in order to make the music…”, says the group.
Global album of the month
Blending salsa with electronic elements, Afrobeat and lo-fi vocals, the Colombian duo bring infectious positivity to a classic genre
Acid Coco - Mucho Gusto
Acid Coco left Colombia many years ago, but it’s never far away. Channelling cumbia, punk, champeta and reggaeton and other tropical rhythms with electronic sounds in recording sessions that doubled as therapy, they have created a work of visceral emotion that traverses musical landscapes. Love, Colombia, memories of past lives are some of the sources, that inspired the duo in the process of writing and creating this album.
Truth and lies music interview
‘Cool as a cucumber‘. Those were the first words that came to mind when I first saw them; when I met Paulo Olarte Toro and Andrea Olarte Toro, creative heads of the Colombian musical think-tank Acid Coco, I was knee-deep into a few merengue back-catalogues from back in the day, when Billo Frómeta’s Caracas Boys first sailed to the shores of Antioquia to spread the gospel across the mother continent.
Directed by: Gabriel Bonnefoy
Art Direction: Daria Mechkat
La Jungla / El Dragón Criollo
The rhythms, rhymes and rumbas of Africa and Colombia, via the Caribbean, come alive on this new 7” featuring Colombia’s El Dragón Criollo and a mysterious new outfit simply known as La Jungla.
Filmed and edited by Alejandro Bernal Rueda.
Written And Produced by El Dragon Criollo.
Up-close encounter with Rada
We had the good fortune to have a conversation with Angel Rada, the magician of Tropical Sound from Space, protagonist of our upcoming release. Rada is a passionate and relentless musician, a true pioneer of Electronic Music in his country Venezuela.
Rada: Tropical Cosmic Sounds from Space
Compilation made from the Albums Viveka, Impresiones Etnósonicas, Upadesa , Armagedon & The Third Wave Revolution Revolution and Continuvm .
Compiled by El Palmas.
Includes unlimited streaming of Tropical Cosmic Sounds From Space via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Daniel Grau "Freedom"
El Palmas Music is pleased to announce the release of “Freedom” the first single from the iconic Venezuelan producer Daniel Grau in more than 30 years. The song will be released in the forthcoming album El Mágico Mundo de Daniel Grau this year.
The Grau's magic sound is back!
You can order now Daniel Grau’s new album on our bandcamp page. A handmade fusion world where Spacey Disco blends with Electronic Smooth Jazz reconnecting your senses with the past.
MUSIC WITH A HUMAN SOUL
El Palmas music is a record label, a DJ set and an expansive project to revere and inspire through passion for the living music, music that moves. We’re intertropical but we embrace every fusion and mixture as well because is in our nature. In this way, we try to bring in sounds with spirit, artists old and new, forgotten gems, flourishing talents of tropical, funk, disco, salsa, dub/reggae, afro, hip hop, bossanova, original and reissues in physical (12’’, 7’’) and digital formats. After 20 years in music, whether in mixing sessions or conquering the dance floor as a DJ, El Palmas combines the determination required for a unique set with a desire to contribute in music with great artists, releasing them on vinyl and selling their work around the world. El Palmas music, a tropical devotion.
