Cumbia is colored like Colombian sunsets.  It’s sounds like Caribbean coconuts falling to the ground. Cumbia feels like the sweat underneath a Panama hat…. It’s drum and bass on the beach with a little bit of untz. It’s African. It’s New World. It’s tribal. It’s digital. And now it’s getting down with NYC.

The ZZK cumbia digital sound has influenced DJs and artists like Bersas Discos & Tormenta Tropical in San Francisco and DJ/Rupture and Diplo in the East.  The sound has ignited a resurgence in cumbia music for a new generation of Latinos, hipsters, and world-music audiophiles alike.  ZZK Records has received a wide range of media attention from big names like The NY Times, CNN, The Fader, Mad Decent, Discobelle, and Generation Bass.

ZZK has been taking over Europe this summer in dozens of cities including Copenhagen, Dublin, Paris, Odense, Brussels and Barcelona featuring El G and DJ El Remolon. El Remolón mixes global dance, digital cumbia, dubstep and electro-reggaeton cuts. His sound is laid-back but heavy-hitting with a European dance floor untz.

This week, El Remolón and El G crossed the pond to begin a U.S. tour, joined by the tour’s headliner, Tremor, a full live band (ZZK’s only). Tremor is Leonardo Martinelli, a multi-instrumentalist and composer with ten years of experience scoring film and theater in Argentina. Together with Camilo Carabajal and Gerardo Farez, Tremor deftly combines IDM with the sound of Northern Argentina where guitars, drums and other instruments breathe to the beat of computer bleeps. Their live performances include native Argentine instruments like the charango guitar, the bombo legüero drum, keyboards and synthesizers.  Grant, El G likes to describe Tremor’s sound as “digital folklorico.”

Event Info:

ZZK converts Brooklyn to a night of Buenos Aires tropical musical bliss!

TREMOR + EL REMOLON + CHANCHA VIA CIRCUITO + EL G

= ZZK RECORDS SHOWCASE

= ZIZEK CLUB ALL STARS

= THE NEWEST AND FRESHEST SOUNDS OF BUENOS AIRES

ZZK @ Brooklyn Bowl this Thursday!

Catch La Blogotheque’s recent ZZK Video

See what the last ZZK soiree is Buenos Aires looked like a couple weeks ago

The inevitable facebook event here

And the best part?  It’s only 5 bucks!

Doors: 6:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM

Well this is one way to avoid the Uncanny Valley. Willow Garage hired artist Josh Ellingson to illustrate their new PR2 Robot, whose beer-serving, pool-playing skills have been sweeping across the Internet.

From Willow Garage:

One of the problems we have when creating presentations or other materials for robotics is the availability of artwork to illustrate the topics we’re discussing. That’s why we’re making available all of the great artwork that Josh Ellingson did for us in our “PR2 Beta Sites Spotlight” series available with a Creative Commons (NC, BA) license.

via @ Reddit

if cardboard + duct tape is your thing….