Frikstailers

In terms of surface area, Argentina is the 8th largest country on the planet. Yet despite its massive size, the vast majority of coverage pertaining to Argentinian art, music and just about anything cultural is focused on Buenos Aires. While much of that has to do with the fact that nearly half the population lives in the Buenos Aires metro area, a huge portion of Argentinian artists are being largely ignored, even by the country's own media.

So perhaps some kudos should go to Clarín for running this story a few weeks back about the Frikstailers, an electronic duo hailing from Córdoba, the 2nd largest city in Argentina. Frikstailers (roughly pronounced Freak-stylers) have actually been making waves for a while now, both at home in Córdoba and here in Buenos Aires where they have not surprisingly graced the decks at Zizek on several occasions.

With a style that is much more "electronic" than many of their more overtly cumbia-minded counterparts, Frikstailers rely heavily on sampling. As a self-described "dance blender", the duo utilizes snippets of house, electro, hip-hop, dancehall, reggaeton and even pop artists like Britney Spears and Madonna to assemble skittery dancefloor gems sure to appease the whole blog-house and nu-rave crowd. The boys have even made their own remix of Justice's hipster anthem "D.A.N.C.E."

What makes Frikstailers especially interesting is that this sort of electronic music has not really caught on in Argentina, at least in terms of press coverage and what one is likely to hear at local nightspots. While over-the-top Eurodance-style punchi punchi can be heard at most nightclubs, the idea of DJs pulling from and sampling all kinds of genres is a still a novel one. Perhaps that is why Frikstailers and other like-minded Argentinian artists like Lovely Chords seem to be attracting more love from Europe and the United States than they do at home.

In October Frikstailers will get to experience some of that foreign love first hand, as they have been invited to perform in Germany and Spain, the latter as part of the ExperimentaClub Festival in Madrid, which also features artists like Liars, James Chance and the Contortions, Mezbow, Venetian Snares and many more.

Check out Frikstailers' myspace page for more information and a selection of their songs. The boys were also kind enough to send over a few mp3s:

Frikstailers - Baile Frik
Frikstailers - Sudaka Invasor
Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (Frikstailers remix)