Nortec Collective
Encyclopedia
Nortec Collective is a musical ensemble formed by various individual one or two man production projects. The group came together in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Their sound genre mixes electronica
with musical elements and instrumentation of Tambora
and Norteño
music, resulting in the nortec
("norteño" + "techno") style. The various projects began producing and performing Nortec music around 1999. In 2001, they were signed to a recording contract with Palm Pictures, that released their first album "Tijuana Session Volume 1" under the name Nortec Collective. The line-up for that album included Bostich, Clorofila, Fussible, Hiperboreal, Panoptica, Plankton Man and Terrestre. The latter 2 would leave Nortec Collective in 2002.
Nortec Collective's second album, Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3, (Nacional Records
) received much critical praise and was nominated for two Latin Grammy awards in 2006.
In 2008, Nortec Collective ceased to function as a proper collective, with the various individual projects performing and recording separately. According to the Collective's Myspace page, "For the time being, Nortec Collective has decided to release music separately ..." and "Until further notice, there will be not be any bookings for Nortec, Nortec Collective or Colectivo Nortec with the full 4 member line-up."
The various individual projects have go on to release and perform separately. 2008's Tijuana Sound Machine by Bostich and Fussible (also Nacional Records) was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album
. In 2010, Corridos Urbanos by Clorofila was released.
The Nortec Collective has borrowed several elements of Banda music
sub-culture and have used them both in their songs (Narcoteque, Almada) and in their visuals and album covers.
's Central Park SummerStage and Irving Plaza
, as well as the Winter Music Conference
in Miami, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
, and shows at the Royal Festival Hall
in London
and Elysée Montmartre
in Paris
.
Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo
invited Nortec to provide music for the Mexican pavilion at the Expo 2000
in Hannover, and they have done remixes for Beck
, Calexico, Ennio Morricone
, Kronos quartet
, Leigh Nash, and Lenny Kravitz
among others.
In 2006 Nortec performed at the LA Weekly
Detour Festival in Los Angeles
, sharing the bill with Beck, Queens of the Stone Age
, and Basement Jaxx
. The band also performed "Que Bonita Bailas" for the AIDS
benefit album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin
Redux produced by the Red Hot Organization
.
Nortec's music has appeared in commercials for Volvo
, Dell, Fidelity Mutual, Edwin Jeans (with Brad Pitt
), Nissan and others.
The song "Tijuana Makes Me Happy" is one of the soundtracks in 2006 FIFA World Cup
video game and the title song of the feature film by the same name
.
An interactive book entitled "Paso del Nortec: This Is Tijuana" dedicated to the Nortec phenomenon was released in the US, Mexico and Europe in 2004.
In 2005, Nortec Collective released their most acclaimed work to date, the album Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3, which received two Latin Grammy nominations and earned significant airplay on tastemaker radio stations like KCRW
(Los Angeles), KEXP
(Seattle) and KUT
(Austin). The omission of a Volume 2 was thought to have been in imitation of the Traveling Wilburys
intentional numbering of their two albums as Volumes 1 and 3, but it was more in reference to an unfinished Volume 2 album that was not released.
The book "Nor-tec Rifa!: Electronic Dance Music from Tijuana to the World" by Alejandro L. Madrid was published in March 2008. It describes Nor-tec music's composition process and it relation to the nortena, banda, and grupera traditions.
The album Nortec Collective Presents Bostich + Fussible: Tijuana Sound Machine was released digitally on April 29, 2008 and in stores on May 6, 2008.
Corridos Urbanos by Clorofila was released digitally on April 7, 2010 and on CD April 13.
Bulevar 2000 by Bostich + Fussible was released digitally on September 14, 2010 on Nacional Records
.
The 2008 album Tijuana Sound Machine by Bostich and Fussible was nominated for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album for the 51st Grammy Awards
.
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
with musical elements and instrumentation of Tambora
Tambora (Mexican drum)
A tambora is a percussion instrument, resembling a bass drum in Mexican brass bands, mainly in Banda sinaloense and Tamborazo Zacatecano.It is a double headed membranophone with a diameter of 20 - 26 inches, a fixed cymbal on the frame that is struck with another cymbal and a stand for the drum. A...
and Norteño
Norteño (music)
Norteño , also norteña or conjunto, is a genre of Mexican music. The accordion and the bajo sexto are norteño's most characteristic instruments. The norteño genre is popular in both Mexico and the United States, especially among the Mexican community...
music, resulting in the nortec
Nortec
Nortec is an electronic musical genre from Tijuana that first gained popularity in 2001...
("norteño" + "techno") style. The various projects began producing and performing Nortec music around 1999. In 2001, they were signed to a recording contract with Palm Pictures, that released their first album "Tijuana Session Volume 1" under the name Nortec Collective. The line-up for that album included Bostich, Clorofila, Fussible, Hiperboreal, Panoptica, Plankton Man and Terrestre. The latter 2 would leave Nortec Collective in 2002.
Nortec Collective's second album, Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3, (Nacional Records
Nacional Records
Max Glücksmann, born was an Argentine Jewish pioneer of the music and film industries.-Biography:Glücksmann was born in Czernowitz, then part of the Austrian Empire, and emigrated to Argentina in 1890....
) received much critical praise and was nominated for two Latin Grammy awards in 2006.
In 2008, Nortec Collective ceased to function as a proper collective, with the various individual projects performing and recording separately. According to the Collective's Myspace page, "For the time being, Nortec Collective has decided to release music separately ..." and "Until further notice, there will be not be any bookings for Nortec, Nortec Collective or Colectivo Nortec with the full 4 member line-up."
The various individual projects have go on to release and perform separately. 2008's Tijuana Sound Machine by Bostich and Fussible (also Nacional Records) was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album
Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album
The Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album was an honor presented to recording artists for quality albums in the Latin rock and alternative music genres at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
. In 2010, Corridos Urbanos by Clorofila was released.
The Nortec Collective has borrowed several elements of Banda music
Banda music
Banda is a brass-based form of traditional music. Bandas play a wide variety of songs, including rancheras, corridos, cumbias, baladas, and boleros. Bandas are most widely known for their rancheras, but they also play modern Mexican pop, rock, and cumbias...
sub-culture and have used them both in their songs (Narcoteque, Almada) and in their visuals and album covers.
Performances/Projects
Since 1999, the Nortec Collective musicians have toured throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, Japan and Latin America, and played New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Central Park SummerStage and Irving Plaza
Irving Plaza
Irving Plaza is a 1,200-person ballroom-style music venue at 17 Irving Place and East 15th Street in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
, as well as the Winter Music Conference
Winter Music Conference
The Winter Music Conference is a weeklong electronic music conference, held every March since the mid-1980s in Miami, Florida, United States. Venues are hosted primarily in Downtown Miami and Miami's South Beach...
in Miami, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and shows at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Elysée Montmartre
Elysée Montmartre
Open in 1807, the Élysée Montmartre is a music venue, at 72 Boulevard de Rochechouart, in Paris, France. It has a capacity of 1,200 patrons. The nearest métro station is Anvers.In 1900, the venue was damaged by fire, and was re-decorated...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo
Ernesto Zedillo
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León is a Mexican economist and politician. He served as President of Mexico from December 1, 1994 to November 30, 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted seventy year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Revolutionary Party...
invited Nortec to provide music for the Mexican pavilion at the Expo 2000
Expo 2000
Expo 2000 was a World's Fair held in Hanover, Germany from Thursday, June 1 to Tuesday, October 31, 2000. It was located on the Hanover fairground , which is famous for hosting CeBIT...
in Hannover, and they have done remixes for Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
, Calexico, Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
, Kronos quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, Leigh Nash, and Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
among others.
In 2006 Nortec performed at the LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
Detour Festival in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, sharing the bill with Beck, Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. The band's line-up has always included founding member Josh Homme , with the current line-up including longtime members Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo , alongside Michael Shuman and...
, and Basement Jaxx
Basement Jaxx
Basement Jaxx are a British electronic dance music duo from London, England consisting of Felix Buxton born 1971 and Simon Ratcliffe born 1 December 1969. They first rose to popularity in the late 1990s...
. The band also performed "Que Bonita Bailas" for the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
benefit album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin
Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin
Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin, the tenth entry in the Red Hot Benefit Series of compilation albums, takes a post-modern look at the contemporary rock en Español scene...
Redux produced by the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
.
Nortec's music has appeared in commercials for Volvo
Volvo
AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...
, Dell, Fidelity Mutual, Edwin Jeans (with Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
), Nissan and others.
The song "Tijuana Makes Me Happy" is one of the soundtracks in 2006 FIFA World Cup
2006 FIFA World Cup (video game)
2006 FIFA World Cup is the official video game for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, published by EA Sports. 2006 FIFA World Cup was released simultaneously on the GameCube, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360 on April 24, 2006. In Europe it was simultaneously released on April 28, 2006...
video game and the title song of the feature film by the same name
Tijuana Makes Me Happy
Tijuana Makes Me Happy is a 2006 film made in Tijuana, Mexico. It was directed by Dylan Verrechia, and co-written by James Lefkowitz, with original music by Nortec Collective...
.
An interactive book entitled "Paso del Nortec: This Is Tijuana" dedicated to the Nortec phenomenon was released in the US, Mexico and Europe in 2004.
In 2005, Nortec Collective released their most acclaimed work to date, the album Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3, which received two Latin Grammy nominations and earned significant airplay on tastemaker radio stations like KCRW
KCRW
KCRW is a public radio station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, carrying a mix of National Public Radio news, talk radio and freeform music format. The general manager of KCRW is Jennifer Ferro...
(Los Angeles), KEXP
KEXP
KEXP-FM is a public radio station based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys. Its broadcasting license is owned by the University of Washington, which operates the station in a partnership with Paul Allen's Experience Music Project...
(Seattle) and KUT
Kut
Al-Kūt is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about 160 kilometres south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 374,000 people...
(Austin). The omission of a Volume 2 was thought to have been in imitation of the Traveling Wilburys
Traveling Wilburys
The Traveling Wilburys were an English–American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, accompanied by drummer Jim Keltner...
intentional numbering of their two albums as Volumes 1 and 3, but it was more in reference to an unfinished Volume 2 album that was not released.
The book "Nor-tec Rifa!: Electronic Dance Music from Tijuana to the World" by Alejandro L. Madrid was published in March 2008. It describes Nor-tec music's composition process and it relation to the nortena, banda, and grupera traditions.
The album Nortec Collective Presents Bostich + Fussible: Tijuana Sound Machine was released digitally on April 29, 2008 and in stores on May 6, 2008.
Corridos Urbanos by Clorofila was released digitally on April 7, 2010 and on CD April 13.
Bulevar 2000 by Bostich + Fussible was released digitally on September 14, 2010 on Nacional Records
Nacional Records
Max Glücksmann, born was an Argentine Jewish pioneer of the music and film industries.-Biography:Glücksmann was born in Czernowitz, then part of the Austrian Empire, and emigrated to Argentina in 1890....
.
Recognitions
Nortec Collective's album Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3 received two Latin Grammy nominations in 2006 for "Best Alternative Music Album" and "Best Recording Package."The 2008 album Tijuana Sound Machine by Bostich and Fussible was nominated for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album for the 51st Grammy Awards
51st Grammy Awards
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on February 8, 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, jointly winning five awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year...
.
Discography
- The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1 (15 July 2002)
- The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3 (26 July 2005)
- Nortec Collective Presents Bostich+Fussible: Tijuana Sound Machine (29 April 2008)
- Nortec Collective Presents Clorofila: Corridos Urbanos (13 April 2010)
- Nortec Collective Presents Bostich+Fussible: Bulevar 2000 (14 September 2010)
External links
- Official site
- Nortec Collective on MySpace
- Bostich+Fussible Tijuana Sound Machine on MySpace
- Nortec Collective Information at Nacional Records (Nortec Collective's US record label)
- Nortec Collective Information at Mil Records