About the Mexicans inventing slowed down music, google 'cumbias rebajadas'. Sometime in the early 70s (I think) in Mexico djs in urban discos started slowing down some of their dance music as the night wore on, which started the trend. It still seems to be popular today, tons of hits for it come up if you search youtube and such. A lot of it sounds pretty cool, although the music manipulation in what I've found doesn't usually seem as intiricate as what Screw was doing at his high points.
Interesting to note that if my guess on time of origin is correct it would roughly coincide with the rise of dub in Jamaica, which also shares certain similarities with c&s music.
Alex/steadybloggin
Asked by Anonymous
Nice, thanks for the info dude.
Edit: Just wanted to add/clarify that my question was about the allegation in the Frieze article about Screw “stealing” this type of music. I don’t me to imply that he did or didn’t (I have no idea), just that, imo, when you make that sort of an allegation, it’s probably best to offer a little more evidence than “proximity”.
Maybe I’m off-base here, but liking and adopting a technique used in regional music (i.e., slowing down the tempo of a record) and incorporating that into your own music while adding new elements (C&S), doesn’t strike me as “stealing” (i.e., in the sense of what occurred with Jazz) so much as innovating. Again, not arguing as to whether or not cumbia music influenced Screw music (I’d say that’s entirely within the realm of possibility), just the choice of how the author presented said “influence” in the context of the piece.
Regardless, I’m off to YouTube. Thanks, Alex.
-SM
