Cumbia Cosmonauts

As part of Soulshine’s coverage of the Australasian World Music Expo being held in Melbourne this November, we caught up with the Saca La Mois DJ (aka Moses Iten) founder of the Cumbia Cosmonauts to discuss all things “Cumbia” and the world’s biggest Caribbean festival. The track ‘Cumbianauts Incoming’ is available to stream for this interview. - Soulshine

Die Cumbia Cosmonauts sind zum ersten Mal auf Europatournee. 5 Planeten Reporter Daniel Fernando Wahl hat sich mit Moses Iten, einem der Produzenten der Cumbia Cosmonauts unterhalten... - Funkhaus Europa (WDR)

Melbourne-based DJ and producer Moses Iten (aka Saca la Mois DJ) introduces a selector's choice session which charts the worldwide explosion of Colombia's famous cumbia as well as less well-known Afro-Peruvian folk styles. Adapted by electronic musicians, South American dance rhythms are exciting international audiences more familiar with techno and hip hop - nowhere more so than in Melbourne where Moses fuses cumbia and dub in his floor-filling Cumbia Cosmonauts project. Prepare for cultural collisions and donkeys in space in this rhythm-driven edition. - ABC Radio National (Brent Clough on The Night Air)

FUTURISTIC explorers from the past are putting the funk into the MONA FOMA festival.

Melbourne-based sound system Cumbia Cosmonauts fuse traditions of old-school Colombian rhythm music with technology in an energetic show.

Band member Moses Iten said the sound could be described as "electro Caribbean space folk".

"We're exploring the past and projecting what it would look like in the future," he said.

For their MONA FOMA shows, the five musicians use lasers, computers and a VJ as they play accordion, trumpet, keyboards and percussion. To sample their music, visit myspace.com/cumbiacosmonauts

The Cumbia Cosmonauts will perform at the Princes Wharf No. 1 shed from 9pm today and at 11pm on Saturday.

The shed, the heart of the festival, has been transformed into a hangout where Salamanca lawn lovers will enjoy mingling, eating and drinking on the temporary turf.

The shed is also home to some intallations presented by the Museum of Old and New Art and it will host the festival's big-name acts. - The Mercury (Hobart TAS, Australia)

One of the crowd favourites performing at Mona Foma 2010 were the Cumbia Cosmonauts, a futurist electro folk band from Melbourne. - ABC Radio Hobart (Siobhan Maiden)

http://discontentblog.com/2010/01/11/americas-volume-one-a-mixtape-by-moses-iten/ - Discontent blog (Stuart Buchanan, Sydney, Australia)

http://generationbass.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/spaced-out-cumbia-by-cumbia-cosmonauts/ - Generation Bass blog (Vince Koreman, Netherlands)

http://discontentblog.com/2008/11/11/tremor-viajante-remix/ - Discontent blog (Stuart Buchanan, Sydney, Australia)

These guys are a bit of local amazing that totally took us off guard. It was one of those classic Melbourne music connections where as soon as you find out about someone, you realise you have about 20 friends in common and all you DJ mates were already following them. They are, the Cumbia Cosmonauts.

The insides of the cosmonauts look like Soup (mix, fx, guitar), Saca La Mois DJ (vox, fx) as the core members and frequently feature Carlos Parraga (accordion, percussion, casio) and other musicians including Richard Burns (trumpet, melodica, percussion) and more. When they come together live and in the studio it makes for one super-team of music. First of all yes, the Cosmonauts are a Cumbia outfit from Melbourne, their music is in no way contrived, but rather original, educated and straight up fun. Every set of theirs i’ve seen has managed to get all sorts of people shaking, jumping and yelling out chants of Cumbia. They incorporate a wide range of samples and cosmic fx, and their live show is fueled with jamming, cowboy hats, a good ol’ casio and plenty of accordion. - Scatterblog (Melbourne, Australia)