Nortec Collective was a musical ensemble formed by various individual one- or two-man production projects. The group came together in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Their genre mixes electronic music with musical elements and instrumentation of tambora and norteño music, resulting in the nortec ("norteño" + "techno") style. The various projects began producing and performing nortec music around 1999. In 2001, they were signed to a recording contract with Palm Pictures, and released their first album, ''Tijuana Session Volume 1'', under the name Nortec Collective. The line-up for that album included Bostich, Clorofila, Fussible, Hiperboreal, Panoptica, Plankton Man and Terrestre. The latter two would leave Nortec Collective in 2002. Nortec Collective's second album, ''Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3'' ( Nacional Records), received much critical praise and was nominated for two Latin Grammy awards in 2006. In 2008, Nortec Collective ceased to function as a proper collective, with the various individual projects performing and recording separately. According to the Collective's Myspace page, "For the time being, Nortec Collective has decided to release music separately..." and "Until further notice, there will be not be any bookings for Nortec, Nortec Collective or Colectivo Nortec with the full four member line-up." The various individual projects went on to release and perform separately. 2008's ''Tijuana Sound Machine'' by Bostich and Fussible (Nacional Records) was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. The Nortec Collective has borrowed several elements of Banda music sub-culture and have used them both in their songs ("Narcoteque", "Almada") and in their visuals and album covers.

Performances and projects

Since 1999, the Nortec Collective musicians have toured throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, Japan and Latin America. They have played

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

's Central Park SummerStage and Irving Plaza, as well as the Winter Music Conference in Miami, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and shows at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

in London and Elysée Montmartre in Paris. Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo invited Nortec to provide music for the Mexican pavilion at the Expo 2000 in Hannover, and they have done remixes for

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...

, Calexico,

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...

, Kronos quartet, Leigh Nash, and

Lenny Kravitz Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. His style incorporates elements of rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop and folk. Kravitz won the Grammy Award for Best Male Roc ...

among others. In 2006 Nortec performed at the ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

'' Detour Festival in Los Angeles, sharing the bill with Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, and

Basement Jaxx Basement Jaxx are an English electronic music duo consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. The pair got their name from the regular club night they held in Brixton, London, UK. They first rose to popularity in the underground house scene ...

. The band also performed "Que Bonita Bailas" for the

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

benefit album '' Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux'' produced by the

Red Hot Organization Red Hot Organization (RHO) is a not-for-profit, 501(c) 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture. Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilati ...

. Nortec's music has appeared in commercials for Volvo,

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

, Fidelity Mutual, Edwin Jeans (with

Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...

), and

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

. The song "Tijuana Makes Me Happy" is on the soundtrack '' 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany'', the video game by EA Sports, and is the title song of the feature film by the same name. An interactive book entitled ''Paso del Nortec: This Is Tijuana'' dedicated to the Nortec phenomenon was released in the US, Mexico and Europe in 2004. In 2005, Nortec Collective released their most acclaimed work to date, the album ''Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3'', which received two Latin Grammy nominations and earned significant airplay on tastemaker radio stations like KCRW (Los Angeles), KEXP (Seattle) and

KUT Kūt ( ar, ٱلْكُوت, al-Kūt), officially Al-Kut, also spelled Kutulamare or Kut al-Imara, is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 389,400 people. It ...

(Austin). The omission of a second volume was thought to have been in imitation of the Traveling Wilburys' intentional numbering of their two albums as Volumes 1 and 3, but it was more in reference to an unfinished Volume 2 album that was not released. The book ''Nor-tec Rifa!: Electronic Dance Music from Tijuana to the World'' by

Alejandro L. Madrid Alejandro Luis Madrid-González (born August 25, 1968) is an American music scholar, cultural theorist, and professor, whose research focuses on Latino and Latin American musics and sound practices. He is professor of musicology and ethnomusicolog ...

was published in March 2008. It describes nortec music's composition process and its relation to the nortena, banda, and grupera traditions. In 2008 the album ''Nortec Collective Presents Bostich + Fussible: Tijuana Sound Machine'' was released. ''Corridos Urbanos'' by Clorofila was released in 2010. ''Bulevar 2000'' by Bostich + Fussible was released in 2010 on Nacional Records. In 2008, Nortec released a music video for their song "Polaris", created by the late Heath Ledger's film collective, The Masses. They released what was stated to be their final album, ''Motel Baja'', on 16 September 2014 – Mexican Independence Day. Hear Nortec Collective Take the Tom Tom Club to Tijuana on 'Motel Baja'
Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2015-12-01. In April 2015, Nortec Collective: Bostich+Fussible performed a live/DJ set for Boiler Room in Mexico City.Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible
YouTube. Retrieved 2015-12-01. As of 2020, Nortec: Bostich+Fussible have been the most active duo of the former collective, performing at Coachella, Glastonbury, PortAmerica, Vive Latino and numerous venues around the world.

Recognition

Nortec Collective's album ''Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3'' received two Latin Grammy nominations in 2006 for "Best Alternative Music Album" and "Best Recording Package." The 2008 album ''Tijuana Sound Machine'' by Bostich and Fussible was nominated for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album for the

51st Grammy Awards The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the b ...

Discography

* '' Nortec Sampler'' (1999) * '' Nortec Collective: The Spaced TJ Dub EP'' (1999) * '' Bostich+Fussible: Nortec'' (2001) * '' The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1'' (2001) * '' Nortec Experimental'' (2001) * '' Panoptica: 01 * 02 * 03 * 04'' (2001) * '' ¡Terrestre vs Planktonman!'' (2003) * '' The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3'' (26 July 2005) * '' Nortec Collective Presents Bostich+Fussible - Tijuana Sound Machine'' (29 April 2008) * '' Nortec Collective Presents Clorofila: Corridos Urbanos'' (13 April 2010) * '' Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich+Fussible - Bulevar 2000'' (14 September 2010) * '' Nortec Collective: Hiperboreal - Border Revolver'' (5 May 2012) * '' Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich+Fussible - Motel Baja'' (16 September 2014)

Bibliography

* '' Paso del Nortec. This is Tijuana''. José Manuel Valenzuela. Trilce Editores 2004 * '' Rockin the Americas. The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America''. Deborah Pacini, Susana Ascencio. UNiversity of Pittsburgh. 2004 * '' Loops -una historia sobre la música electronica-''. Javier Blánquez. Reservoir Editores. 2005. * '' Nor-tec Rifa Electronic Dance Music from Tijuana to the World''.

Oxford University Press. 2008.

References

External links