The last few years have been a resounding celebration of club music from Latin America and its diaspora. The rise of TraTraTrax. The virality of DJ Ramon Sucesso and DJ K. The dizzying reggaetón, techno, cumbia and electro hybrids from Miami. Critic Shawn Reynaldo has called it a “Latin Music Gold Rush”.
This excitement by punters and the press, however, obfuscates one important fact: Central and South America, plus the Caribbean, has a long, elaborate history of bangers.
These regions have produced some of the best dance music in recent decades, including hardgroove, afterhours techno and Latin house. This has been the argument long pushed by Chile-born, Brazil-based Valesuchi, a staunch…