Rebajada in Spanish means “to reduce, to lower”. It’s basically Mexican sonideros (sound-system operators) slowing down the beat of a Cumbia to create a much more tangible music to dance to. Slowed down music allows you enough time to hear right through it, revealing itself in ways rarely experienced before. Everything becomes more transparent and one can notice sounds normally only perceptible by bats. A near psychedelic experience.
The sonidero who brought Peruvian and Ecuadorian music to Mexico was the legendary Pablo Perea from Sonido Arco-Iris, and although his fingerprints are all over the compilation Saturno 2000, this selection of songs in rebajada is exclusive to DJ Lengua. With the exception of a few classics from Polibio Mayorga and La Sampuesana – the queen of all rebajadas – most of these songs were probably never performed as such before, let alone released.
