Djs Pareja are Mariano Caloso and Diego Irasusta, an Argentinian duo of queer DJ-producers who are core members of the Cómeme record label run by Matias Aguayo. Since they met in the early ’90s and began releasing music a decade later, they have become integral in defining the new-school of house and techno made in South America, as resident DJs at the legendary Compass parties at Niceto Club in Buenos Aires. Today, they throw their own parties, Fun Fun and Syncro, in the capital.

Outside of Cómeme, they have also released EPs on Tiga’s Turbo Recordings as well as on Huntleys & Palmers, Honey Soundsystem, and Schalen. In 2021 they released Nuestra Forma, a four-track EP of shoegaze dance music in collaboration with young singer Lupe, as well as “Kappov” on Jennifer Cardini’s Dischi Autunno and “Felixiano” on Permanent Vacation. For this week’s XLR8R podcast, they’ve recorded a studio mix celebrating the Latin American musicians in their orbit: Paurro, De Pepa, and Beresi, to name a few. Expect just over an hour of primal, rhythmical acid and techno with sharp and rugged percussion.

01. What have you been up to recently?
Making music for the future and producing our two parties in Buenos Aires, Fun Fun and Syncro. This year, we’ve been to Paraguay for the first time and it was incredible. We have also been promoting our latest release, Nuestra Forma Remixes, which features remixes by artists we love such as Nikki Nair, Ariel Zetina, and Paurro. And a remix we did of a catchy track called “Match Point” by Fernanda Arrau and Persona RS from Chile, which came out a couple of months ago on Catz ‘N Dogz’ label.

02. What have you been listening to?
Such a difficult question since we listen to a lot of music of all kinds and from different decades. But we can highlight an EP called Hyper Inflation by Beresi, a producer from Rosario, Argentina, and also the latest productions of Mexico’s own Paurro, both on Cómeme records.

Two albums also caught our attention recently: one is Voice Actor’s Sent From My Telephone which, taking advantage of the Spotify format, has 109 micro songs! We don’t have much information about this project, but it amuses us to think that it was done using artificial intelligence. And the other one is an album from 1992 that we discovered this year. It’s by Little Annie, a multi-faceted artist from New York. It is called Short and Sweet and sounds something like Madonna’s Erotica but with a low-fi sound and a post-punk attitude. We also like listening to DJ mixes on Soundcloud; some of our favorites are from The Carry Nation, Ben UFO, and Mor Elian.

03. Where and when did you record this mix?
We did it in our studio using Ableton Live because we don’t have CDJs. They are expensive in our country and we don’t need them much here at home either. We have two Technics 1200 turntables, we learnt to mix using them many years ago, and we have an Allen & Heath mixer, but we haven’t used vinyl for playing dance music DJ sets in a while.

04. How did you choose the tracks you’ve included?
We always like to include tracks by producers from Latin America, or people close to us from a certain musical or personal affinity. In this mix there is an unreleased track by De Pepa, who is a mysterious producer from Argentina. There are also tracks by Paurro and Beresi, who are the latest additions to the Cómeme label. And we also included “Acre,” a track of the first EP by InVertida, a trans DJ and activist from Buenos Aires. We usually like to include some classic tracks as well and the latest promos we receive from labels we are interested in!

05. What can the listener expect?
Good energy, a bit of eclecticism, uplifting piano melodies, catchy basslines, and smooth passages and transitions.

06. How does it compare to what we might hear you play out live?
Quite similar actually. This DJ mix could play at any of our DJ gigs in a good party or club. It certainly has the vibe of our live DJ sets these days!

07. What’s next on your horizon?
A new four-track EP of original songs will be released on Cormac’s label, Polari, in November. We will be back on Cómeme in 2024 with something that will be very special. And we will also keep DJing as usual and trying to take our sound everywhere.

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. De Pepa “High” (Sociedad Gánica)
02. Philipp Gorbachev “Positivity” (PG Tune)
03. Lipelis x TMO “Diet 505” (System 108)
04. Paurro “Mi Viejita” (Nervous Records)
05. DAWL “Drop It” (Craigie Knowes Ltd)
06. Beresi “Extasis Of Love” (Cómeme)
07. Derek Plaslaiko “My Fire Alarm” (The Bunker New York)
08. Devoye “Radius Clause” (Nervous Records)
09. Gynoid 74 “Rain” (T4T LUV NRG)
10. Josh Caffé “You” (Phantasy Sound)
11. TAFKAMP “Sound Of Sea” (Rotterdam Electronix)
12. InVertida “Acre” (Trava Lengua Records)
13. Eamon Harkin “Old Sage” (Sorry Records)
14. Stones Taro ” Ton Tan” (Scuffed Recordings)
15. Eleanor “Thin End Of The Wedge” (Sorry Records)
16. 543ff & Gamma Intel “Tino’s Way (Jeroen Search Remix)” (Diffuse Reality Records)
17. Moby “Go” (2006 Mix) (Mute Records)