Debit Is Exploring the Magic—and Pushing the Limits—of Cumbia Rebajada
An interview with the NY-based Mexican artist, who talks about her forthcoming new album and the unique strain of cumbia that inspired it.
Like many people in her hometown of Monterrey, Mexican artist Debit (a.k.a. Delia Beatriz) grew up surrounded by cumbia. Though the Afro-Latin genre originated in Colombia and has roots that date back to the 19th century, it’s long been ubiquitous throughout Latin America, and its reach has been extended further as diaspora populations have settled around the globe. At this point, saying “cumbia” is akin to saying “rock,” “jazz” or “electronic music,” as the music has spread, splintered and mutated into forms too numerous to count.
One of the most interesting forms, however, is cumbia rebajada, a style that first emerged from Monterrey’s migrant-heavy Colonia Independencia neighborhood during the 1990s. Attributed to a local collector and sonidero named Gabriel Dueñez (a.k.a. Sonido Dueñez), the genre is said to be the result of an accident; one night, in the middle of a gig, one of his turntables apparently overheated, slowing the cumbia records he was playing to a woozy, psychedelic crawl. Voices were transformed into ghostly groans, horns and accordions became warped textures, and yet, the crowd kept on dancing. Cumbia rebajada was born.
In the decades that followed, cumbia rebajada has spread, and though it’s remained something of a niche concern within the grand scheme of cumbia and Latin music, it’s nonetheless attracted a fervent response, particularly among those with a passion for avant-garde sounds and the more adventurous corners of soundsystem culture. Some of that passion undoubtedly stems from the parallels between cumbia rebajada and the chopped-and-screwed sounds pioneered by Houston’s DJ Screw, but whatever the reason, a kind of cult fandom has sprouted up around the genre, even as its progenitors have gone largely unrecognized and the music itself has mostly circulated—at least outside of Mexico—via hard-to-find tapes, obscure blog posts, YouTube videos and other less-than-official means.
A Monterrey native, Debit—who moved to the US at 12, went to high school in Texas and eventually settled in New York City—has a closer relationship to cumbia rebajada than most. Though she was too young to experience its earliest iterations, she’s been fascinated with the genre for many years, and decided to make it the focus of her forthcoming new album, Desaceleradas, which is scheduled to drop next month via Modern Love. (The first single, “La ronda y el sonidero,” has been circulating for a few weeks, and another track from the LP, “Gabriel Gabriela Dueñez,” was made available earlier this week.) The label was also home to her celebrated 2022 full-length, The Long Count, a research-heavy effort for which she used machine learning to create digital instruments based on ancient Mayan whistles, ocarinas, flutes and trumpets. Desaceleradas obviously zeroes in on a much more recent patch of Mexican music history, but it takes a similarly conceptual and process-based approach, with Debit rooting her abstract compositions in source material from two Sonido Dueñez tapes, Rebajadas 1 and Rebajadas 2. (Originally released in 1992, the tapes have now been reissued via Boomkat; the first one sold out almost immediately, and the second, which only surfaced last week, will likely disappear quickly.)
As something of a low-key cumbia nerd myself—First Floor readers may not realize this, but during the late 2000s and early 2010s, I was involved in running both a cumbia-oriented label (Bersa Discos) and monthly party (Tormenta Tropical)—I was immediately intrigued when Desaceleradas was announced, and asked Debit if she might be interested in an interview. Even before that, I knew she was an interesting figure; aside from authoring The Long Count, she’d first made her name as part of the extended N.A.A.F.I orbit, combining Latin rhythms with high-definition production while venturing into both ambient textures and club-ready bangers. Technology has long been key to her artistic practice, and it’s also central to her work as a teacher, as she’s currently an adjunct professor in the Music Technology program at NYU.
We talked about her time in the classroom—and her impressions of her Gen Z students—during a long call last weekend. In truth, much of our conversation was focused specifically on Desaceleradas and the broader story of cumbia rebajada, but along the way, we touched on Debit’s memories of Monterrey, her musical upbringing, her thoughts on AI technology and the challenges of being in Latin artist within the context of an electronic music culture that remains stubbornly Eurocentric. Though her new album hasn’t even arrived yet, Debit was also happy to share some future plans, including a new live show—processed accordion is involved—and another, more club-oriented album that’s slated for next year.
Desaceleradas may be rooted in slowing things down, but as she makes clear, Debit herself is moving ahead at a healthy clip.