Daily PANAMANIA Tip Sheet: Chancha Vía Circuito

By Kelli Korducki

You know what’s world-class? PANAMANIA’s music festival programming. Here’s our guide to the must-see free music shows of the day, every day, during the fest.

About a decade ago, Argentinian DJ Chancha Vía Circuito was among an early wave of Latin American producers to begin mixing cumbia beats with psychedelic electronic organ chimes, folkloric murgas and candombes, and dub. This distinctive fusion, which takes the slinky cha-ch-ch-cha of a Colombian-bred pan-Latin dancefloor staple and updates it for cosmopolitan music-geek sensibilities, is frequently dubbed nu-cumbia or, alternately, digital cumbia. Buenos Aires dance-night-turned-record-label ZZK is considered one of genre’s foremost champions, and Chancha is among its flagship acts. Tonight’s free show will feature a guest appearance by frequent ZZK collaborator and local treasure Lido Pimienta (who, rumour has it, will also popping into A Tribe Called Red’s rightly hyped 9 p.m. closer), and promises an experience not to be missed.