“Invigorating”, “brilliant”, and “charismatic” are just a slew of the adjectives used to describe Tropa Magica. “The East L.A. duo made a name for themselves by combining alternative, grunge, and psychedelic rock with cumbia” -Spin magazine.

Having toured nationally and on multiple southwest and west coast tours, they have supported established acts such as Bomba Estereo, Molotov, and comedian Felipe Esparza. The band has boldly and successfully taken on larger LA stages at venues such as The Microsoft Theater, El Rey Theater and The Hollywood Palladium.

In 2018 and 2019 Tropa Magica performed at So-Cal festival favorites Desert Daze and Tropicalia. At the end of 2019 the band self released a limited edition 7inch vinyl EP “Smells Like Cumbia” featuring Nirvana songs as cumbia renditions.

Despite the pandemic, 2020 has been a fruitful year for the band. They wrote and recorded the theme song for comedian Felipe Esparza’s new Netflix special and collaborated with the notorious Foo’s Gone Wild on the “Foo Files Cumbia” track released earlier this year. The band has partnered up as ambassadors with 805/Firestone Beer and is sponsored by Fender guitars and Ernie Ball.

The Mauskovic Dance Band
 

Amsterdam’s Mauskovic Dance Band are a musical family in the widest sense: not only are four of the five band members related, but like any family they are always on the move. They have been carrying out their experiments in hazy rhythms and dubby percussive workouts since 2017. In the early days, the boys fused their love of Afro-Caribbean poly rhythms with a no-wave sound palette to create their own unique danceable chaos. Check out their inaugural 7”s for Bongo Joe Records out of Geneva.

They picked up the ears of British label Soundway, and subsequently released an EP and their debut self-titled album in 2019. Armed with an arsenal of hypnotic grooves and airtight arrangements, they cemented their reputation as a live act to fire up dance floors, and took their instruments on the road everywhere from Russia to Mexico, with plenty of European festivals in between. 

For their next chapter, the group dived further into their vast array of echos and spring reverbs, and fine-tuned their sound system-inspired, post-punk aesthetic. A four track EP Shadance Hall, complete with dub versions, came out via Dutch label Dekmantel in 2020, and they will showcase this latest evolution of their sound when they perform this summer.