Lido Pimienta & Ghetto Kumbé + DJ Bacalao (Colombia / Canada)

Lido Pimienta

There are so many layers to Canadian-Colombian singer Lido Pimienta’s identity that you might get lost in them. Her multi-textural, mind-bending voice and music project constantly confronts the powers that be. It also reveals an embrace of the Afro- and Indigenous traditions that is both defiant and sweetly nostalgic.

Her new album Miss Colombia takes her ecstatic hybridity to a new level, building on the intersection of electronica and cumbia established by her first two albums, Color, released in 2010, and the 2016 Polaris Prize-winning La Papessa.

As a Canadian global-beats trailblazer, Lido has an affinity for acts like A Tribe Called Red and Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq, but her work also resonates with British-Sri Lankan rapper MIA and she draws unabashed inspiration from rap queen Cardi B. Miss Colombia expands the narrative about her dual Colombian/Canadian identity to her family’s mixed roots in the Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Wayuu communities, while establishing an ambitious new sonic palette that brings her closer to home. This autumn, Munch will be visited by an artist edging ever closer to an artistic peak.

Ghetto Kumbé

The Colombian trio Ghetto Kumbé is calling on people from all around the world to rise up, and join their digital rumba. Their almost ritualistic concerts are based on a powerful blend of percussion, Caribbean house beats and traditional afro Colombian rhythms inspired by West Africa. The Colombian alegre drum and African djembe played by Juan Carlos “Chongo” Puello and the dundun played by Andrés “DocKey” Mercado intertwine, while Edgardo “Guajiro” Garcés mixes electronic beats and samples. Before the band was founded in Bogotá in 2015, the three musicians played together on tour for years with bands like the legendary fusion pioneers Sidestepper and the Salsa band La 33.

All three musicians hail from the Caribbean coast, and in Ghetto Kumbé, they use musical motifs from Africa and Colombia’s Caribbean coast, coupled with electronic production, creating Afro-futurist soundscapes.

Inspired by different revolutionary movements emerging all over the world, Ghetto Kumbé released their first full-length album, Ghetto Kumbé, in 2020. Their first single, ‘Vamo a Dale Duro’, is a fluorescent criticism of the unjust divide between the poor and the rich, the rising prominence of dirty politicians, and the ethics of the capitalist system. When Ghetto Kumbé performs live, the will to protest meets the urge to dance.