Mexican electronic music has slowly drifted away from the spotlight it had in recent times under the reflective shield of The Nortec Collective, a merry group of music producers from the border city of Tijuana that held the highest standard in their country for a cross fertilization of electronic music and regional popular sounds. The idea and music captivated and attracted an impressive array of media from many places of the world and catapulted the collective of musicians and artists into the Mexican musical mainstream and placed Tijuana in the international circuit of modern electronic music.
One of the members of the Nortec Collective was musician Fernando Corona, who became one of the most accomplished producers of the bunch with his Terrestre project. Twisting the possibilities between Mexican folk music, jazz, bossa and electronica, Terrestre went to the dark side of Nortec, providing a disturbing, polished and addictive soundtrack for the future sound of Tijuana.
Fernando Corona soon left the Collective to concentrate fully on his Murcof project, a successful musical endeavor that has taken him to every possible corner of the earth. As soon as his debut album, Martes, was released on Static Discos and England’s Leaf label in 2002 he gathered some of the most ardent a nd positive reviews throughout the world’s media sphere, declaring Martes a masterpiece of modern electronic music. Fusing the world of contemporary minimal classical music with electronics, Murcof created a sound world that was both experimental and a pleasure to listen to. Since then, Corona has been nominated for the Ars Prix Electronica, played at prestigious world class music festivals such as Mutek, Sonar and Tryptich and became one of the Leaf Label main artists. Murcof has recently released a set of three 12” vinyl on Leaf that have been compiled on a CD titled Utopía, which also include remixes from Sutekh, Icarus, Aeroc (Geoff White), Colleen, Deathprod, Fax and Jan Jelinek.
Not letting to be overshadowed by Murcof, Fernando has found plenty of activity with Terrestre as well, recently scoring the soundtrack for Nicotina the latest movie from the producers of the internationally acclaimed Amores Perros film. Terrestre music has also been used in Japan in a jeans commercial starting Brad Pitt and a split album of early Nortec tracks with Plankton Man was released in the US and México last year.
For Secondary Inspection, Fernando has decided to revisit Terrestre with a new approach, evolving his previous sound into a more minimal experience, placing disturbing atmospheres and deep ambiance in front of the samples. Reminiscent in style t o Murcof’s finest moments, Terrestre relies more on rhythm and 4/4 techno patterns; creating an aural illusion that places him on the left side of Plastikman’s scariest moments. The album consists of 6 lengthy tracks that almost clock the 50-minute mark, and as a bonus “Secondary Inspection” includes two remixes from fellow label mates and Mexican producers H. Amézquita and Duopandamix.
Terrestre can now be categorized as Post-Nortec, but still some elements and traces of the sampled instruments of street musicians from Tijuana and Ensenada remain firmly in place. Secondary Inspection is an album filled with trans-border express sounds that allude to the fearful sensation of being closely watched by the powers that be in a post 9/11 world where everyone is a suspect and a target.
((STREAM))