Pantropical: Lechuga Zafiro, El Plvybxy, Rattlesnakke, Blondewednesday

*Text from Pantropical*

Pantropical returns for their only summer event in 2022! We shift our focus to Latin America for a friendly match between Uruguay and Argentina, the two neighbouring countries where our protagonists occupy a musical twilight zone between global club culture and the poetics of intricate sound design. We celebrate the return of the mighty Lechuga Zafiro and welcome the AGVA collective delegates El Plvybxy and Rattlesnakke, who will be making their debut in NL.

LECHUGA ZAFIRO (UY | hiedrah, naafi, club viral, pininga)
Straddling the line between the exploratory aspects of club culture and the poetics of sound design, Uruguayan artist Pablo de Vargas, aka Lechuga Zafiro, seeks to express the nuances of Latin American experience through his music. With a background in experimental music and the rhythms from the Southern Hemisphere, de Vargas started producing as Lechuga Zafiro in 2012. Influenced by the drums of the Afro-Uruguayan Candombe tradition, Mexican Tribal music (which here refers more to the ‘3bal’ genre rather than ‘tribal’ as most westerners know it – ed.), and Angolan-Portuguese Kuduro rhythms, Zafiro caught the attention of dancers and listeners with his debut track “Sapo de Manga”, released in 2013 on Cómeme. Not limited to just music production, Zafiro is a skillful DJ with a playful disregard for genre consistency, blending the intricate and the energetic, moving deftly from Baile Funk to upbeat bass music to his own productions.

EL PLVYBXY (AR | agva, majía, salviatek)
El Plvybxy (aka Gregorio Da Silva) is a pivotal figure of the Argentinian underground club scene. The Buenos Aires-based, half Argentinian, half Brazilian producer started releasing a variety of genre-transgressing club music from promising local producers through his AGVA records in 2016, followed by the initiation of the ‘Agvaritual’ club series in 2017. His own work includes comprehensive musical research (check out his brilliant contextualized “Especial de Guarachas Santiagueñas” mix for pantropical), and places him firmly among a new generation of producers who are eagerly pushing the boundaries of contemporary club music and Latin-American identity.

RATTLESNAKKE (AR | agva, majía)
Lucero Gamerro aka Rattlesnakke (sic) is a DJ, producer and singer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Aside from being a member of the AGVA crew and resident of the ‘Agvaritual’ party series (see above), she also is MC’ing under the ‘LW0’ moniker, exploring Cloud rap and other subgenres of hiphop within the context of club music. She released her music through e.g. AGVA and Majía.

BLONDEWEDNESDAY (PT | r’dam)
Blondewednesday’s omnivorous ears are never turned off. She traded her home country Portugal for Rotterdam to revel in the open space between the club microcosm and experimental music. Along the way, she developed a strong liking for pantropicalisms which is why she frequently returns to the fold.