DJ /rupture sez: Happy twenty ten everybody! Now that our various celebrations are more or less over and our heads are more or less clear, let’s give a warm welcome to PM JAWN, the latest thinker-tinkerer to join the Dutty Artz famila. She’s one of those rare individuals who will spot a Tupac cameo in some obscure reggae-pop crossover video from the 90s and wax casually brilliant on his career then resume a linkthink conversation on why, say, freestyle matters to people like me (who are, criminally, only marginally aware of its existence). You may be familiar with her hive-mind conversations over at Ongaku Club. This first Dutty post kicks things off well with REAL QUALITY INFORMATION aka record store names, addresses, photos and reviews for the deep Latin music heads among us, not to mention one of the year’s best local cumbia jams. Executive realness! ..and now for PM Jawn:

mexico lindo records in passaic, new jersey

hello, fam. i’m very excited to join the blog squad. dutty artz is getting a bit more femme in 2010!

two weeks ago /rupture tweeted about a possible cumbia shopping visit to exurban new jersey. intrigued, my world music 2.0 partner-in-crime lily and i decided to tag along on to find out exactly what jerz has to do with it… trip documentation after the jump!

beforehand, i decided to check the internets for any bloggy documentation of cumbia production and distribution in north jersey, but did not come up with much info. i did find a bevy of listings for latin music record shops scattered around passaic, clifton, patterson, and hackensack. there were also some perplexingly xenophobic newspaper articles about the death of the indie record store, how the remaining stores need to appeal to the latino market to survive, because latin music stores are thriving. how exciting for us!

passaic is only a half hour drive from new york and appears to be the “cumbia capital of north jersey” based on a few bands and mixtapes that rep its environs. the stores we visited were all located in downtown passaic peppered among the discount stores, ethnic food markets, delicious-looking restaurants, and abandoned storefronts of the economically depressed, stuck-in-the-60′s main streets. our first stop was mexico lindo records (749 main avenue). the most boisterous store of the trip, it had the largest selection of goods ranging from soccer paraphernalia, movies, karaoke dvds, and a standard collection of meringue, bachata, norteña, rock en español, etc. the cumbia section was well-rounded, featuring groups from new york, los angeles and both popular and indie mexican acts. unfortunately, local north jersey bands were not featured. loud, annoying euro house was blasting through interior and exterior speakers, so we bounced after purchasing some meringues navideñas. next stop was el milenio records (44 lexington avenue). full of religious tchotchkes, luchador masks, and cell phone accessories, el milenio had a pretty bare bones selection of cumbia. and like every other store we visited, there weren’t any other customers.

r.i.p. eden records... wish i knew you

one revelation from the trip was that contrary to the fears of new jersey journalists, latin music stores are no longer threatening to command the music market. there were many stores on our list of places to check out that were clearly recently closed. its unclear to me whether this was due to general recessionomics or the availability of cheap or free cumbia online (if so, plz direct me to where), but it felt like latin-oriented shops are also suffering the fate of most other independent mixtape shops.

interior of la conga records

the last shop was la conga records (294 1/2 monroe avenue). its petite and jam-packed interior was full of intriguing new compilations. they also had the best selection of dj mixes and live recordings of local artists. we spent the most skrilla there and emerged with the best stuff. my fave tune from the trip is “yo no se mañana” by new york hitmakers estrellas de la kumbia:

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Estrellas de la Kumbia-Yo No Se Manana

all in all, it was a fun daytrip/short dystopian paradise vacation.