Fauna comes direct from the foothills of the Andes where Catar_sys and Color Kit brew their particular strain of digital cumbia, morphing the traditional rhythm into jungle-cumbia infused with dancehall, IDM, and drum & bass. At home in Mendoza wine country, the duo found their idyllic surroundings to be ideal terrain for a ragga-inflected cumbia record.
La Manita producer DJ Nim expounds: “La Manita de Fauna started out as a psychedelic instrumental project that brought cumbia and drum & bass together on a mushroom cloud. This record is soaked in Fauna´s particular spirit and worldview. The album meets life´s difficulties with humor, an absence of prejudice, plenty of irony and, at the same time, room for lucid and even mystical thoughts.”
With this hybrid sound dubbed “digital cumbia” gaining momentum, the two producer-MCs from Mendoza release 11 songs that tap into genres including reggae, reggaeton, cumbia, cumbia villera (gangster cumbia), and baile funk, and merge them with electronic rhythms including IDM, jungle, and breakbeat.