Strictly Rhythm

LA MEZCLA

Strictly Rhythm has signed potentially this summer’s most lethal dance track.

Built on a reputation for releasing some of dance music’s most significant moments in its career, Strictly Rhythm is no stranger to buzz tracks.

This year the label celebrates its 20th anniversary with another such signing, one that again shows how Strictly Rhythm is continually pushing innovative house music and promoting new talent.

‘La Mezcla’ (roughly translated as ‘the big mix up’), released on Luciano’s Cadenza imprint from Switzerland, has been relentlessly hunted by DJs since featuring in numerous DJ sets at this year’s Winter Music Conference and in the last few months has grown to near mythical status.

Swiss producer Michel Cleis is the man behind the mysterious and distinctive La Mezcla, a track built on a vocal and flute sample adapted from the Colombian traditional and Afro-Latin performer Totó La Momposina.

During the six long months it took to clear the sample, La Mezcla was simmering slowly in the live DJ sets of the likes of Ricardo Villalobos and Luciano, spreading out to Dennis Ferrer, Louie Vega, Laidback Luke and Erick Morillo. Luciano especially was instrumental in the record surfacing by releasing it on his own Cadenza imprint and the ferocious bidding war that followed saw Strictly Rhythm emerge with the spoils.rnrnBig Ibizan tune is a cliché thrown around with little regard to reality, but trust us when we say that La Mezcla is the real deal – and one of the biggest tracks of 2009.

'La Mezcla' is available to download now.