WOMAD

Casa Latina

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THE WOMAD CLUB THING – Saturday 27th JulyBy Andy Morgan, July 2002:CASA LATINAFUTURO FLAMENCO – DJ LUBI JOVANOVIC - DJ MARTIN MORALESNothing in this world stands still for too long and Latin music is no exception. In the past decade or so a new breed of free Latino radical has been taking those old Cuban, Colombian, Puerto Rican and New Yorican rhythms and reclothing them in funky threads fit for the 21st century, embracing the energy of house, hip hop, drum and bass and garage without fear or favour. In the UK, two brave souls have made it their life work to bring these new developments and the best in classic salsa to our attention. DJ Lubi ran the pioneering Casa Latina nite in Leeds, week in and week out with a break only for Christmas for seven whole years before calling it a day last February. As far as Lubi was concerned the Latin scene had become a slave to the ubiquitous dance class experience and actually digging the music itself had become devalued and forgotten. So Lubi shut up shop and after a decent break reopened as SalSoul, a new weekly session for Latin lovers at Atrium in Leeds. Lubi likes his Latin hot, fiery and fearlessly funky. He spins the new Latin sounds of outfits like Orishas, Sergeant Garcia, Azucar Negra and Los Soneros Del Barrio with passion and pride whilst never forgetting to pay hommage to the dons of yesteryear too.Martin Morales has probably done more to prise open the doors of the mainstream dance music scene to new Latin music than any other DJ in the UK today. Thanks to his mixed British / Peruvian parentage, Morales has been supping on the delights of Latin music since he was knee high to a cucaracha. Working for Tumi Records in Bath and then running the innovative Ocho and Manteca compilation labels gave Morales and deep and wide overview of the contemporary Latin and electronic dance worlds. He has Djed in all the UK’s best known megaclubs like Ministry Of Sound, Renaissance, Back To Basics and Manumission, as well as top dance festivals like Homelands, Creamfields, Glastonbury and Phoenix. He has shared bills with top kahunas like Gilles Peterson, Joe Claussell, Patrick Forge and Bassment Jaxx and spread the nu-Latin gospel at clubs and festivals throughout the world. In recent years Morales has also mutated into a sought after remixer and he has reworked tunes by Bassment Jaxx and Aco Bocina. One of Morales’ latest projects is Futuro Flamenco, a passionate and radically modern homage to a very venerable genre. Morales was inspired by the poems of Frederico Garcia Lorca to travel to Andalusia and seek out the living heart of Flamenco for himself. He came back infused by the sensuous beauty of places like Granada and Seville and decided to produce a compilation and a live stage show which mixed the timeless fire of Flamenco with the unrelenting imagination of the dance scene’s best producers and mixers. The resulting album, featuring cuts by Manitas de Plata, Los Chorbos, Julius Papp, Rey de Copas and the Grid, was released just a month ago to wide acclaim by Outcaste Records, a label which recently hired Morales as head of A&R. With the help of dancer Sefi Muñoz, guitarist Bob Beigi and percussionist Paul Gunter, Martin Morales will present Futuro Flamenco in all its passionate glory live and direct to WOMAD. This is your ticket to the soul of modern Spain.