With a mix called ‘Bethlehem’, Chuquimamani-Condori marks a cacophonous and cathartic close to the year.
E Crampton Chuquimia is one of the most quietly era-defining artists of their generation. Ever since their early music as E+E and the release of their modern classic debut, American Drift, they have continued to explore and illuminate the intricacies of their singular sound, each project unveiling new aspects of their ever-evolving approach to composition, deconstruction and sonic inscription. Shapeshifting between composing, making mixes and edits as Ocelote DJ and DJ K’oa, as well as collaborating with their brother, Joshua Chuquimia Crampton, as Los Thuthanaka, the artist picks apart the sounds and signifiers of contemporary club sound design, shredded guitar music and pop ballads, all while winding their way back through the legacy of the traditional Andean music played by their ancestors of the Pakajaqi nation of Aymara people.
Their music and art made as Chuquimamani-Condori marks a convergence point for the themes and motifs that flow through all of this work. In installation works for the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and MoMa PS1 the artist gazes back through the lives of their grandmother, Flora Tancara Quiñonez Chuquimia, and their great great-grandparents, anti-colonial activists and practitioners Francisco Tancara and Rosa Quiñones, exploring their ancestral history while aligning indigenous Aymara cosmologies with queer and abolitionist thought. This same vision, wrought from intergenerational knowledge and cultural exchange, set to the infinite rhythm of huayño, a genre of Andean music and dance, swirls into focus on Chuquimamani-Condori’s stunning new record, DJ E, one of the most mind-bending, magical albums we’ve heard all year.
“This is the sound of our water ceremonies,” explains Chuquimamani-Condori, “the 40 bands playing their melodies at once to recreate the cacophony of the first aurora and the call of the morning star Venus.” For their Fact mix, which they have titled ‘Bethlehem’, they pick up where they leave off on DJ E, the album’s final track ‘Until I Find You Again’ threatening to swallow Tracy Chapman’s ‘Smoke & Ashes’ whole. What follows is a visceral expansion of the sound world from which the album resonates, studded with distortion, ragged with emotion and played with true spirit, a transmission for tumultuous times and for a cathartic close to the year. “If you ever cared for me, if I ever loved you, if I ever did you wrong, if you ever broke my heart, then fuck with me now.”
You can find Chuquimamani-Condori on Instagram, SoundCloud and Bandcamp.
Tracklist:
Chuquimamani-Condori x Tracy Chapman – ‘Until I Find You Again’ x ‘Smoke & Ashes’
Chuquimamani-Condori & Joshua Chuquimia Crampton – ‘Q’iwanakax/Q’iwsanakax Utjxiwa (The Queer Peoples-Medicines Are Here)’
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton – ‘Acidito’
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton & Ayllu Pahaza – ‘Machaq Mara’
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton w/ Embaci – ‘Francisco Tancara & Rosa Quiñones stem w/ Tides’
Graciositas – ‘???’
Chuquimamani-Condori & Joshua Chuquimia Crampton – ‘Joshwila Capo Edit’
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton & Ecco2k – ‘Eternero’
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton – ‘Sea’
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton – ‘Samka Khuchhinaka’
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton – ‘Mi Eleganza’
Qhantati Ururi – ‘Layka Qhantati’
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton – ‘Daughter (My Daughter’s Medicine)’
Beach Boys – ‘Morning Christmas’
Listen next: Fact Mix – Jossy Mitsu
