Skip to main content

Selections: NAAFI

In this series, Selections, we invite DJs, producers and label heads to dig into their digital crates and share the contents of their Bandcamp collections. This week, as the label celebrates the release of OMAAR’s ‘Drum Temple’, NAAFI’s Fausto Bahia highlights cutting-edge club sounds from Latin America and beyond

In this series, Selections, we invite DJs, producers and label heads to dig into their digital crates and share the contents of their Bandcamp collections. While hearing new music played out by your favourite selectors has been put on hold as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s never been easier, or more important, to support the artists and imprints releasing tracks, albums, EPs and comps in the midst of all the madness. In lieu of opportunities to discover new records on the dancefloor, Selections will give you the chance to nab sounds from the crates of tastemakers, and support the people behind them while you’re at it. Win-win, right?

This week, Fausto Bahia, label manager at Mexico’s NAAFI, highlights a range of releases both on and off the imprint, celebrating cutting-edge club sounds from around the world. Over the past decade, NAAFI has become a crucial platform for underground club music in both Mexico and further afield, bringing adventurous music to audiences across the globe and reshaping the hybrid sounds of its homegrown scene. Recent releases on the label have included TYGAPAW’s incredible ‘Get Free’, Dengue Dengue Dengue’s ‘Fiebre’, GAIKA’s ‘Seguridad and Debit’s ‘System’, along with some more that you’ll read about below. 

Most recently, NAAFI released ‘Drum Temple’ by Mexico City’s OMAAR. The DJ and producer’s fourth release for the label finds him fusing the percussive sounds of dembow, tribal house, deep house, techno, UK funky, hard drum and gqom. Speaking of the album, he said: “I made a meticulous selection because I try to capture my experience and vision of some genres and musical styles.” 

OMAAR’s ‘Drum Temple’ features seven original tracks from the producer, who has been a prolific and versatile figure in the local scene for almost a decade. The album also comes with three remixes from Lao, Nick León and WRACK.  You can buy it here.

Check out NAAFI’s Selections below. 

OMAAR
‘Drum Dance’ [NAAFI]

“I wanted to start with ‘Drum Dance’ from OMAAR's release because I'm really happy to see his first LP come to life. It’s something that I've been looking forward to for a long time and I really love the outcome.”

El Irreal Veintiuno
‘TL-MD’ [Kebrada]

“From Mexican producer El Irreal Veintiuno I chose ‘TL-MD’, which came out on Dengue Dengue Dengue's label Kebrada’s first compilation, ‘Discos en 3/Cuartos’. The song is fire but it was also the start of a new latin label, which I'm happy about because latin artists in general will have another platform to work with. It’s another well put together platform that I think is really important.”

Lila Tirando a Violeta
‘Flores & El Mar’ [NAAFI]

“‘Limerencia’ was released on NAAFI. It’s an eight-track EP from the Uruguayan artist, which we worked on for a while until we put it out last year. It has been really nice getting to know her and working with her. She is a really sweet person that brings light to our work, as the experience of working with her is so nice. I wanted to share something from her for everyone who might have slept on it, and this track is a really good intro to the EP.”

Hyph11e
‘Barnacles’ [SVBKVLT]

“I wanted to share something from SVBKLT, one of my favorite labels at the moment. I chose this song from Hyph11e because when it came out I was really drawn in by the music and the art that feels so different to western or westernized music. That's so refreshing. So for anyone who slept on it, here it is!”

Nick Leon
‘Aguacero’ [NAAFI]

“This one was released on NAAFI too, and for this album we didn't do a lot of press since it came out right as the pandemic started and we didn't know how music was gonna work out as an industry. I regret it because it's such a solid release and even though it went a bit under the radar I feel people really got into it! So I wanted to share it again!”

Lorenzo BITW
'Pantea’ [Future Bounce]

Buy on Bandcamp

“I met Lorenzo in Rome a few years back, at the same time I met Kiri who directed this video, so I wanted to share this as I love to see my friends collaborate, plus the song and video are super solid!”

Brea
'Veneno de hada' [HiedraH Club de Baile]

“To look at what’s happening in electronic music at the southern tip of Latin America you have to look into HiedraH Club de Baile, a collective and label that is very close to NAAFI and that is pushing club music as far as possible with a South American vision. It that lives by its own ways, per se.”

Sha Sha Kimbo & WRACK
‘Go To Mars’

“We've been working with WRACK for a while know, and we have released his music and been friends for a while now too. Sha Sha Kimbo is a producer we like a lot, so I was very happy to see this come as I wasn't aware of it. Listening to it, it’s cool to see both sounds really coexist together perfectly.”

Laughing Ears
‘Madness of Two’ [OUT OF FASHION BOYS]

“From Beijing-based promoters and label, OUT OF FASHION BOYS. Here is a track from their upcoming compilation ‘Punch Drunk: Out of Fashion Boys Vol.2’. If you had the chance to play or go clubbing in China you know how crazy it is. Here's a taste of what you could get yourself into if you're in Beijing having a night out.”

ForyFive & Lao
‘Tiralo’

“Lao and ForyFive have been working together for a bit now and, by the way, this is not club music but a taste of what the rap scene in México is starting to look like. Lao killed the instrumentals and ForyFive killed the vocals.”