Happy Friday! We’re back with Diego Garcia, singer-songwriter from New York! This time we present “Separate Lives” from his debut album as a solo artist, called “Laura,” which was inspired by heartache and the motivation to get his girl back. The video was filmed on the rooftop of the Standard Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

To find out more about Diego Garcia, chick here: http://pulsobeat.com/2011/06/24/videobeat-viernes-diego-garcia-sings-about-heartache-in-you-were-never-there/

Also watch the video where he talks about the album:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Feliz viernes! Today we bring the new Navegante video: a remix of the song “All In Your Head,” featuring rapper Young Chris! The original track (which appears in the album Rebel Ship Rock) is great, but the remix takes the song to a whole new level… The video was shot at the Rocawear headquarters in New York City and was directed by Rik Cordero, who has worked with artists like Nas, Jay-Z and The Roots.

We hope you’re ready for this electro-funk journey, because there’s nothing like it out there… Pulso y Pa’ Lante!

To watch the video of the original track… click HERE!

¡Feliz viernes! Hoy traemos la canción “2º Dia“, interpretada por Roberto Carlos Lange, ecuatoriano criado en el sur de la Florida que comenzó el proyecto llamado Helado Negro cuando se mudó en el 2006 a Nueva York, lugar que ahora considera su casa. Recientemente Lange se refugió en una cabina en medio del denso bosque de Connecticut para grabar el álbum “Canta Lechuza“, un proyecto en solitario, muy íntimo, en el cual la voz descansa encima de sintetizadores y beats de un modo muy natural. Siéntate, relájate y disfruta… ¡Pulso y Pa’ Lante!

Happy Friday! Today we bring you a singer-songwriter from New York, Diego Garcia, who describes himself in his Facebook profile as a “boy who sings about love”. His recent album “Laura” was inspired by heartache and the motivation to get his girl back. The song “You were never there” was written with George Harrison‘s son Dhani Harrison, and was chosen as the first single off “Laura”, which has been gaining a lot of attention lately, being promoted by mediums such as NPR, KCRW, and Starbucks. We hope you don’t feel heartache after you hear this song on this fortunate Friday. Pulso y Pa’ Lante!

Also, take a look at this video, where Diego Garcia talks about the album:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Interview & Pictures by: Don Bustamante

Location: San Francisco, California

Pulsobeat.com recently interviewed Chico Mann. An artist whose passion for music and its culture, has allowed him to revolutionize and create a style unlike any other.  Here’s a glimpse of what went on during the interview. Be ready because Chico Mann’s tour is on the move and coming to all of us very soon!

PulsoBeat (PB): Who is Chico Mann and how did the name develop:

ChicoMann (CM): Name comes from the movie “Wild Style”. It felt appropriate because as the first hip hop movie it included a lot of Latino influence, and I feel that Latinos are part of the genesis of hip hop. The redundancy of Chico and Mann can mean any man, and really worked on all these different levels, so I felt the name was perfect for me and what I represent.

PB: Hip hop has progressed so much, how do you think that has influenced everything you’ve done up until this time?

CM: I’ve loved hip-hop since I was a little kid, the whole culture, break dancing, the funk of the music, and I feel that musically I’m just channeling that little kid. As I got older I got into other kinds of music, and at some point i wasn’t really following hip-hop, but you know you cant escape it. I’ve been around it my whole life so it influences me in more ways than I know.

PB: You’re father was in the industry, why did he advise you to stay out of it and why did you choose otherwise?

CM: They’d been giving me music lessons since I was 7, and in the 70’s and 80’s the Latin music business was really corrupt, it was a dirty business so my father didn’t want me involved in that. I’ve met a lot of old timers who tell me now that my dad was too kind of a person to be in the business, its funny to hear that 25 years later.

I chose otherwise because I love music, my mother has been in songwriting and its all I’ve ever known, and once my dad died I found music as a vehicle to cope with growing up. By the time I became an adult it was the most familiar thing to me, put a melody to a feeling and express it. It’s a very natural thing.

PB: Why did you choose the sounds of 1970′s Afro-Beat, 1980′s Freestyle and Afro-Cuban music to incorporate into your style?

CM: It was a process of experimenting, and I got really involved in using drum machines, I was so deep into Afro-Beat that everything I heard I could turn into it. That’s where my head is, it is its own musical idiom so once you start speaking that language it just happens organically. After recording and making different tracks I could start hearing how freestyle is a natural extension of Latin influence. It’s all from the same tree so the thread is really easy to spy, once you see it, it becomes really obvious.

PB: Tell me about your first album, Manifesto I. Why you called it that and how it helped launch your career?

CM: It was the result of a bunch of recording experiments, the idea was to make an archival recording. I had no thought about how to present it live, but it got picked up by a Dutch label that wanted to release it, so I went with it. I called it Manifesto because I was just playing with sounds and I had this idea that I would start with this simple premise and I come from a song writing background so it really was about a spontaneous composition.
I use to agonize over song form lyrics and when I was able to abandon that I had all this freedom that I was never able to have before so I just threw it into these projects. The parameters were simple, but they had to come from Afro-Beat. I was having so much fun that before I knew it I had breezed through I don’t know how many tracks, and the vision that I had became more clear as I familiarized myself with freestyle and new avenues.

PB: Based on your tattoos and the artwork in your projects, how does the Mayan culture influence you in your life and in your music?

CM: My grandmother was from Guatemala, and in high school I became concerned with exploring my ancestral origin when I discovered that she was Mayan. I started exploring native religion and culture and got myself more familiarized with it. My roots in that land made me feel really connected to everything about it.
In college I began to feel the connection with my ancestors, and so the pyramid on the cover comes from integrating the ancient and the future, it’s a good representation that the ancient and the future are one.
The live show now incorporates a color scheme and vibe to suggest and attract forces, and I use those forces to deliver a message.

PB: What are some of the latest projects that you’re getting into? Musical or otherwise?

CM: I’ve been focusing on the live shows lately so I don’t really know, people send me tracks to write to and I haven’t really gotten to a lot of them. I’m doing collabo’s, which come out in June, so aside from that there’s the occasional AntiBalas gigs, but mainly focusing on Chico Mann.

PB: How do you feel social media has impacted you as an artist and where would you be today if you didn’t have that?

CM: You have to be in the digital domain, social media is great because you can interact with your fans. I try to stay connected with people.
The dark side is that familiarity breathes content. I don’t need everyone to know everything I’m doing, I try not to put personal things on there. I try to keep it positive, and bring positive light to the world through my music, so anything that isn’t in line with that I don’t really share.
People forget to filter what they say, and everything has an impact. As an artist people look to us for direction and inspiration, so you have to be aware of what you say. It’s a slippery slope, which has to be handled with a lot of care.

PB: Do you plan on touring in South America, specifically Colombia in the future?

CM: I would love to; it’s such a great music scene. Now that I’m doing this show it’ll be a lot easier to be presented with the opportunity. This year I really want to do all the intensive touring in the fall so in the winter I can finish the album I’m working on. My fingers are crossed for South America, maybe even Australia, Brazil, and Europe.

PB: What can people expect from this tour you are on now?

CM: I don’t know how to verbalize that… I can tell you from my perspective what I’m exploring, I have all this technology that allows me to play my music in ways that I didn’t even know I could. Combinations of musical ideas and motifs that I didn’t think went together, but throughout my songwriting they work. I’m trying to create a musical landscape.
I want people to let go of the day and just have an experience. In this age of digital media people don’t really buy music anymore but there’s a great demand for the performance, so I’m trying to create a musical experience that transcends. Its all exploration, I don’t always know where its going to go, but that’s the fun part about it.

Listen to the full interview below:
ChicoMann Interview by Pulsobeat

Feliz viernes! Today we’re back with Navegante, from New York, with the new video for the single “All In Ur Head”! Their electric 21st century funk has been featured in the New York Times, the Village Voice and New York Magazine. Also, the legendary guitarist, Santana has said that “Navegante is the artist that will carry the torch into the future.” Do you need more proof to know that they’re really good? They’re giving a free EP away here!: http://navegantemusic.com/download/. Now you can be the judge… Pulso y Pa’Lante!

To know more about this amazing band, read our full-length Navegante article here: http://bit.ly/eQ2iaU

Navigating through the streets of Brooklyn, New York there exists a duo with an electro-funk-rock sound and a Latin-twist to say the least. Navegante was formed two years ago and is made up by the talents of Jean Shepherd on vocals, guitar and live programming and Washington Duke on drums. They’re sound is an electric 21st Century funk that transcends all genre-lines. We quote the legendary Carlos Santana: “ Navegante is the artist that will carry the torch into the future.”

They took residency for a year at the small Spanish Harlem club, Camaradas, to improve their breakthrough sound, and feedback has been nothing but positive. “If you don’t do shows and really test your songs and material for the people, if you don’t figure out how to get them, while you’re up there, you could practice all you want, it’s not going to make much of a difference,” Washington explains. And oh boy! wasn’t he right, their shows have everyone buzzing and have gotten attention from the music industry and media in New York City. Navegante has been featured in the New York Times, the Village Voice and New York Magazine. Santana also covered a song written by Jean on his “All That I Am” record, which Jean had the privilege of playing alongside Santana at the CD release party.

Navegante’s full-length album is planned to be released in the first half of 2011….any minute now so stay tuned! Meanwhile, you can get their EP for FREE HERE! Their unique sound is infectious, revolutionary and continually evolving. If you’re hoping to see them live, Navegante has scheduled shows in New Orleans, Key West, Miami, Panama, Paris and more places to come. Check out their website to find out the latest news on their anticipated album and added shows!

Click here to view the embedded video.

¡Feliz Viernes! Esta semana tenemos a Styla J, un artista y productor urbano de Brooklyn, NY con raices dominicanas. Empezó en el 2005 haciendo pistas para otros artistas, pero su pasión por la música creció cuando comenzó a hacer producciones para si mismo y desde entonces lleva promoviendo el género urbano latino en la escena neoyorquina con su estudio y sello 3Secretos Music. Vinimos hoy con el video de su tema “Verme Mal”, donde nos enseña sus habilidades para rimar. ¡Que lo disfruten! ¡Pulso y Pa’ Lante!

Last Friday, February 18, we caught up with Tropical Bass specialists Geko Jones and Uproot Andy, the DJ duo together known as Que Bajo?! They left the snowy winter going on in NY and came down to tropical and sunny Miami to spin one of their “sabrosón” sets at Transit Lounge, a night presented by Jack Daniel’s Studio No. 7. We interviewed them a few hours before the show and this is what they told us. Enjoy! Pulso y Pa’ Lante!

Wow!!!

It’s already been a little over a year that PulsoBeat with it’s premier “Arroz Con Leche” event first showcased Tropical Bass in Miami with the crew from Que Bajo?!:  Geko Jones and Uproot Andy.

Now get ready Miami for this Friday February 18 11pm at Transit lounge, the return of Que Bajo?! presented by Jack Daniel’s Studio No. 7 with special guest DJ sets by Mr. Pauer(who just happened to release his album “Soundtrack“) and DJ Le Spam. Also don’t forget the live performance by Lanzallamas Monofónica! You just can’t miss out out on on this music packed date!

IT’LL BE IS AMAZING! Come through and Enjoy.

Transit Lounge
729 SW 1st Ave
Miami, FL 33130