Before I started writing for Salacious Sound I ran a little moombahton-focused blog out of Vancouver called 110BPM. I still wouldn’t consider myself an expert in it (or any genre), but one thing I can tell you is that a hell of a lot of it gets pumped through my ear-holes every day. After listening to so much of it I’ve finally come to realize what it is I love about it: out of all the genres that I know of, its the one that best reflects the artist who produces with it. Since the list of rules about what constitutes a moombahton track are so small – 1. Be around 105-115BPM, 2. Have a dembow (sometimes) – it allows for so many influences, both personal and cultural, to shine through. It’s this and this alone that keeps me coming back to the genre. Even though it isn’t in the spotlight any more ( sorry, Dave Nada 🙁 ), it’ll still maintain that special spot inside of me.

“Okay” you’re thinking, “That’s all fine and dandy for you to be telling us, but until you give me some clear-cut examples I’m just gonna assume that you’re a hopeless romantic professing his love for low-tempo style of music.”

I’m glad you said that, Internet, because here are some examples that I’ve categorized by location for you:

1. Vancouver: My home-town. Very few cultural influences, essentially purely grounded in recent music history with lots of experimentation.

2. Calgary/Edmonton: Horses.

3. Toronto: Various European roots. A little gritty, top-quality production.

4. Las Vegas: Big room, big room, and big room.

5. Los Angeles: Heavy Latino influence with that flair that you can only find in LA.

6. New York: Very current and very urban, with a similar variety of influences as Toronto.

7. London, UK: Similar to Vancouver, they’re always down to experiment and are strongly rooted in the early dubstep sounds (think Benga, not Skrillex)

8. Italy: Huge underground scene with heavy grimey sounds.

9. The Netherlands: A melting pot for cultural influences and a truly global sound

Nine tracks later and I could really continue into infinity, but I’m at work right now and have to get back to being productive. Hopefully I was able to get my point across. Yes, half-baked moombahton tracks and edits that wear their dembows like a school uniform are the absolute worst, least original tracks out there. However, when you get tracks that are well done I think this genre is up at the very top in terms of creativity.

– Ziad

PS. Like these tracks? Hate them? Tweet at me and let me know.