This is my favourite track from a great band out of La Paz, Bolivia called Cubayande who are fusing Andean instrumentation with caribbean beats. I was gutted to miss them live in Sucre by a day.  I can't take much credit for changing much...I just fattened it up a little for my DJ sets. I'm not sure how you can get the self-titled LP but they've got a Facebook page. I got it from the manager of the bar 'Locots' they were playing the day after I left Sucre, as I'd been teaching him some English. 

http://es-es.facebook.com/pages/CUBAYANDE/269691435378


Cubayande - Cumbia Charango (Griff re-edit)

This is the second track I love from Cubayande's new album. Cubayande are from La Paz Bolivia and have a range of music blending Andean instruments with Caribbean rhythms. Again I can't take a great deal of credit for having changed much. Just added some beats and percussion and jacked up the bass a little. Their album's not even on Itunes so if there are any labels out there that want to give this band a break let me know. 

Cubayande - Domingo por la manana - Griff rmx

Los Tios are me and Roberto Sahonero from the legendary Bolivian band Los Masis. This is the first of a series of tunes put together with Robbie in Sucre, Bolivia. I spent a very happy couple of months at Los Masis headquarters above Cafe Florin there, learning charango from Gonzalo del Carpio and sharing musical ideas with Robbie. The Charango on the track is me and the Zamponas and Quenas are Robbie. The name Los Tios came out of the Bolivian Diablada tradition as El Tio (The uncle) is the lord of the underworld where the miners all have to work. The tune is a kind of mashup between the Tinku rhythm from Northern Potosi department and an old Peruvian Huayno melody.  It's definitely a work in progress and it's hard to finish it off properly whilst I'm on the road in South America with just headphones to work with.

Cafe Florin - Los Tios

Second in the series of experimental Andean fusion tracks with Robbie Sahonera from Los Masis. We were playing around with the big bass zamponas (toyos) and this emerged out of it. Robbie played all the zamponas and the quena and I played charango and everything else.


Altiplano Dub - Los Tios

I started this about 6 years ago and then got stuck but was spurred into action when I saw that Jeremy Sole had already had a crack at it. I kind of went back to what I'd done on this and thought it was worth having a go at finishing it. I already know there are purists out there that will hate it but where would we be if we didn't experiment a little from time to time? I'm a massive Tom Waits fan and have tried squeezing the original into DJ sets but it just didn't quite work somehow. (I'm still kind of fearful the man himself is going appear at the bottom of my bed one night dressed as circus ringmaster and carrying a grim reaper's sickle to dispatch me to the underworld for my insolence.) 



Tom Waits - Step Right Up (Griff rejig)

Tuvan Two Steppe

Just a homage to one of my favourite producers Richard Blair aka Sidestepper. Sometimes not credited I feel for being light years ahead of all the johnny-come-latelys to the tropical music scene (myself included). He's been making great progressive music with Colombian musicians since the mid-nineties. I can't make it available for download I'm afraid...the original is beautifully restrained and minimalist but I just wanted to try to add beats for DJ sets. 

Sidestepper - In beats we trust (Griff remix)

Currently on the coast of northern Peru in Hemingways 'Old man of the Sea' country. Pelicans and fishing boats. This track seems to suit the place. It's one of those criminally short tracks that fades just as you think it should be really getting going. I think the original comes in at under three minutes. It could and should have easily been ten minutes longer. I've tried to extend it a little and give it the early nineties extra bass and beats treatment. Hope Calvin won't mind. It's from his LP 'Vertical Clearance' if you want to track down the original. 

Calvin Keys - Secaucus S. Rutherford (Griff Remix)

We're well into the tropical coastal belt now in Ecuador and there's no more huaynos...just salsa everywhere. This track is one I got off a pretty poor compilation years ago called Salsa heat...so poor in fact that this track was mis-labelled 'El Chisme' by Celia Cruz. I've since heard that track and this clearly isn't Celia Cruz which leaves me with no idea what this is. If anyone who knows their latin wants to tell me what the original track underneath this remix is...I'd be delighted to find out. 

Montañita latinstepper

Only a draft headphone mix so far. Let me know what you think.

Orquesta Nunez - La Samaria - Griff remix

Third track from experimentation with musical virtuoso Roberto Sahonero from the band 'Los Masis' in Sucre, Bolivia. We decided to call ourselves Los Tios for the purposes of this project. All zamponas, toyos and quenas are by Robbie and I played the charango and put everything else in place. I was struggling to finish this one as I felt it was too slow but  ZZK in Buenos Aires are doing really well experimenting with Andean stuff that's even slower so I thought I'd put it out there to see what reaction it gets. Respect and shouts to Chancho via Circuito, Piper Street Sound and the other people dabbling in Andean at the moment. 

Los Tios - Chuquisaca Electrica (Senor Griffs Huayno dubout mix)

Available through Juno on Carnibal Records 007.

Cerro Rico (Senor Griff)

I didn't get into Soundcloud properly till out was out in South America. Weirdly I got a great reaction to this track which was one of the first things I put together on Cubase on a PC so all the files were stuck at home on a desktop. I've been waiting a long time to reconstruct the track in Logic on the Mac as the original was pretty rough and low quality. I managed to track down a better copy of the original as well so there's a more of the original on here. Should be cleaner...louder and more like it was always intended to be. Hope you like it. 

Tito's Dream 2012

Fun with funk and soul breaks. Result of an experimentation session some years ago to work out which breaks could be shoehorned into the same track.  Goes out to anyone that used to dance to 'How Gee' by Black Machine in the early nineties...still sounding heavy and fresh.


Match ma style

Tito's Dream

Remix of some Tuvan Throat singing I found. If anyone wants to check them out they are called Ay Kherel. 

The Tool - Griff remix

I know...weird one! I love the original track of this. Was just experimenting to see if I could tweak it to make it playable in my sets and this strange hybrid emerged. 

Kicky - Chet Atkins (Senor Griff remix)

Seems like I can feel a shift out of electroswing towards electroblues from certain forward thinking DJs and producers.  I was working on this a couple of years ago but never really finished it off. I did my best to stay true to the grunginess and chaotic timing of the original whilst adding some heavier beats and bass. It felt to odd to be doing blues at the time but now that others are getting into it I thought I'd put it out there and see if anyone digs it. 

JLH-Hard Headed woman (Griff mix)

Most MC's leave me pretty cold these days but this guy is a real talent. This particular vocal I just can't get enough of...but I never really found anyone else's mixes that I liked other than the original Emptyheads. I thought the ragga style vocal deserved samba reggae backing. Major thanks to Dynamite MC for letting me make this available for DL. What a vocal!

Dynamite MC - Shake (Senor Griff remix)

I haven't done a serious mix in a while and somehow it ended up being a blend of melancholy blues, swing and heaps of tropical courtesy of some of my favourite producers at the moment. 

The last time I did a mix I was still using vinyl so I wanted to experiment with sorting one out entirely digitally. It's not as easy as it should be...mostly just difficult keeping the quality up after having had to rerecord MP3s at altered tempos for the mixes. If any of the artists featured in the mix feel like sending me full wavs or aifs of their tunes then I'd be delighted to slot them back in at higher quality. Here's the tracklist.


Kinka - Totala Dub
Palov & Panama Cardoon – Basmati Rice
Kazamatsuri Kenta – Alasca
Muddy Waters feat Automato – Walk into the Blues (Grant Lazlo Rmx)
Monetrik - Blues Soup (Due for release on Freshly Squeezed on 17th Feb 2013)
Grant Lazlo – Une Histoire de Photo
Palov meets Ang Angelides – Movin Next Door
Los Chicos Altos – Palenque Barcelona
Dynamite MC – Shake (Senor Griff’s sambaragga rmx)
Coco Raizes de Arcoverde  - Galinha zabele (Dos Melo edit)
Manjah – Oriente Patria
Ella & Duke – Caravan (Grant Lazlo rmx)
Sidestepper – San Juan (Dos Melo Edit)
Monetrik – Juge m Bien
Whiskey Barons – Comencemos
Jazzy Jens – Guarapera
Pinduca – Vamos Farrear (Senor Griff rmx)
Minimatic – The Medellin Bopper
Voodoocuts - Lupita 
Nu Mark – Oya Indebure
Unknown – La Guadaloupe moin river (Frankie Francis Edit)
Manu Chao – Clandestino
Roberto Carlos - O Calhambeque (XRS Remix)


Señor Griff's tropical blues mix

Absolutely love this lady's music. She's matriarch of a very musical UK Punjabi family and her music represents the roots of Banghra. There's something sublimely jazzy about some of her music. It's from an incredible LP on Keda Records titled: Mohinda Kaur Bhamra - The Ultimate Collection. Check it out...there's some amazing stuff on it. 

Mohinder Kaur Bhamra - Ni Aae Na Vilayat Kuriay (Señor Griff remix)

Long time collaborator and resident DJ of the UKs longest running club funk and soul promoters, Jelly Jazz. Also exploring new style of clubbing with Rambunctious Social Club project in the southwest of Britain. Recently returned from 16 months in latin America traveling with my wife and collecting sounds as I go with a Sony PCM D50 handheld field recorder. We made a baby in Peru who was born back in England last June...a daughter! So time is short now...I'll be fitting music whenever I can. 

REQUEST FOR HELP and ADVICE:  I see Soundcloud as a fantastic learning opportunity. I'm the first to admit I'm a beginner at production. If there are any half competent producers out there that can clearly hear problems with my tunes or things that I could improve on then PLEASE do let me know. I'm not proud. It can be incredibly difficult to get good advice about sound production so I greatly appreciate constructive criticism. Bear in mind I'm mixing on headphones at the moment. Also all of my remixes are additive in that I have to take the entire original and add parts to it. I can't take anything away because I don't have access to studio track files. But any help you can give me would be appreciated.  Cheers Griff

PS I've also started the 'Nueva Andina' group and will be moderating that to help promote the artists that are experimenting with modern forms of Andean music. 

Señor Griff

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