Nortec Collective was a musical ensemble formed by various individual one- or two-man production projects. The group came together in

Tijuana Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

, Mexico. Their genre mixes

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

with musical elements and instrumentation of tambora and norteño music, resulting in the nortec ("norteño" + "techno") style. The various projects began producing and performing nortec music around 1999. In 2001, they were signed to a recording contract with Palm Pictures, and released their first album, ''Tijuana Session Volume 1'', under the name Nortec Collective. The line-up for that album included Bostich, Clorofila, Fussible, Hiperboreal, Panoptica, Plankton Man and Terrestre. The latter two would leave Nortec Collective in 2002. Nortec Collective's second album, ''Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3'' (

Nacional Records Nacional Records is an independent record label founded in 2005, based in Los Angeles. Nacional is home to Rock, Hip Hop, Electronic, Musica Mexicana, Pop and other diverse sounds from around the world and sometimes down the block. After 20 years ...

), received much critical praise and was nominated for two

Latin Grammy The Latin Grammy Awards (stylized as Latin GRAMMYs) are awards presented by the Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from any ...

awards in 2006. In 2008, Nortec Collective ceased to function as a proper collective, with the various individual projects performing and recording separately. According to the Collective's

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

page, "For the time being, Nortec Collective has decided to release music separately..." and "Until further notice, there will be not be any bookings for Nortec, Nortec Collective or Colectivo Nortec with the full four member line-up." The various individual projects went on to release and perform separately. 2008's ''Tijuana Sound Machine'' by Bostich and Fussible (Nacional Records) was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. The Nortec Collective has borrowed several elements of

Banda music Banda is a subgenre of regional Mexican music and type of ensemble in which Wind instrument, wind (mostly Brass instrument, brass) and Percussion instrument, percussion instruments are performed. The history of banda music in Mexico dates from t ...

sub-culture and have used them both in their songs ("Narcoteque", "Almada") and in their visuals and album covers.

Performances and projects

Since 1999, the Nortec Collective musicians have toured throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, Japan and Latin America. They have played

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

's Central Park SummerStage and

Irving Plaza Irving Plaza (known through sponsorship as Irving Plaza, powered by Verizon 5G and formerly known as the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza) is a ballroom-style music venue located within the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York ...

, as well as the Winter Music Conference in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and shows at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and Elysée Montmartre in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Former Mexican President

Ernesto Zedillo Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (; born 27 December 1951) is a Mexican economist and politician. He was the 61st president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Re ...

invited Nortec to provide music for the Mexican pavilion at the Expo 2000 in

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

, and they have done remixes for

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...

, Calexico,

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...

Kronos quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

Leigh Nash Leigh Anne Bingham Nash ( ; born June 27, 1976) is an American singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist for the Christian alternative rock band Sixpence None the Richer and was also a member of Fauxliage. Her debut solo album, ''Blue on ...

, and

Lenny Kravitz Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. His debut album ''Let Love Rule (Lenny Kravitz album), Let Love Rule'' (1989) was characterized by a blend of Rock music, rock ...

among others. In 2006 Nortec performed at the ''

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'' Detour Festival in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, sharing the bill with Beck,

Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated as QOTSA or QotSA) is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1996. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme shortly before he returned to his native Palm Desert, California. ...

, and Basement Jaxx. The band also performed "Que Bonita Bailas" for the

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

benefit album '' Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux'' produced by the Red Hot Organization. Nortec's music has appeared in commercials for

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

, Fidelity Mutual, Edwin Jeans (with

Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. In a Brad Pitt filmography, film career spanning more than thirty years, Pitt has received list of awards and nominations received by Brad Pitt, numerous a ...

), and

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

. The song " Tijuana Makes Me Happy" is on the soundtrack '' 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany'', the video game by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

, and is the title song of the feature film by the same name by Dylan Verrechia. An interactive book entitled ''Paso del Nortec: This Is Tijuana'' dedicated to the Nortec phenomenon was released in the US, Mexico and Europe in 2004. In 2005, Nortec Collective released their most acclaimed work to date, the album ''Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3'', which received two Latin Grammy nominations and earned significant airplay on tastemaker radio stations like

KCRW KCRW (89.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is an NPR member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programming ...

(Los Angeles),

KEXP KEXP-FM (90.3 FM broadcasting, FM) is a non-commercial Radio broadcasting, radio station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in indie music programmed by its disc jockeys. KEXP's studios are located at the Seattle Cent ...

(Seattle) and

KUT Kūt (), officially Al-Kut, also spelled Kutulamare, Kut al-Imara, or Kut Al Amara is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about south east of Baghdad, and the capital of the Wasit Governorate. the estimated populatio ...

(Austin). The omission of a second volume was thought to have been in imitation of the

Traveling Wilburys The Traveling Wilburys were a British-American supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1988, consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. They were a roots rock band and described as "perhaps the biggest sup ...

' intentional numbering of their two albums as Volumes 1 and 3, but it was more in reference to an unfinished Volume 2 album that was not released. The book ''Nor-tec Rifa!: Electronic Dance Music from Tijuana to the World'' by Alejandro L. Madrid was published in March 2008. It describes nortec music's composition process and its relation to the nortena, banda, and grupera traditions. In 2008 the album ''Nortec Collective Presents Bostich + Fussible: Tijuana Sound Machine'' was released. ''Corridos Urbanos'' by Clorofila was released in 2010. ''Bulevar 2000'' by Bostich + Fussible was released in 2010 on

. In 2008, Nortec released a music video for their song "Polaris", created by Heath Ledger's film collective, The Masses. They released what was stated to be their final album, ''Motel Baja'', on 16 September 2014 – Mexican Independence Day. Hear Nortec Collective Take the Tom Tom Club to Tijuana on 'Motel Baja'
Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2015-12-01. In April 2015, Nortec Collective: Bostich+Fussible performed a live/DJ set for Boiler Room in Mexico City.Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible
YouTube. Retrieved 2015-12-01. As of 2020, Nortec: Bostich+Fussible have been the most active duo of the former collective, performing at Coachella, Glastonbury, PortAmerica, Vive Latino and numerous venues around the world.

Recognition

Nortec Collective's album ''Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3'' received two Latin Grammy nominations in 2006 for "Best Alternative Music Album" and "Best Recording Package." The 2008 album ''Tijuana Sound Machine'' by Bostich and Fussible was nominated for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album for the

51st Grammy Awards The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the ...

Discography

* '' Nortec Sampler'' (1999) * '' Nortec Collective: The Spaced TJ Dub EP'' (1999) * '' Bostich+Fussible: Nortec'' (2001) * '' The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1'' (2001) * '' Nortec Experimental'' (2001) * '' Panoptica: 01 * 02 * 03 * 04'' (2001) * '' ¡Terrestre vs Planktonman!'' (2003) * '' The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3'' (26 July 2005) * ''

Nortec Collective Presents Bostich+Fussible - Tijuana Sound Machine Nortec (from the combination of "Norteño (music), norteño" and "techno") is a genre of electronic dance music developed in Tijuana (a border city in Baja California, Mexico) that first gained popularity in 2001. Nortec music is characterized b ...

'' (29 April 2008) * '' Nortec Collective Presents Clorofila: Corridos Urbanos'' (13 April 2010) * '' Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich+Fussible - Bulevar 2000'' (14 September 2010) * Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich+Fussible - Norteña Del Sur (4 November 2010) used in Kinect Adventures! * '' Nortec Collective: Hiperboreal - Border Revolver'' (5 May 2012) * '' Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich+Fussible - Motel Baja'' (16 September 2014)

Bibliography

* '' Paso del Nortec. This is Tijuana''. José Manuel Valenzuela. Trilce Editores 2004 * '' Rockin the Americas. The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America''. Deborah Pacini, Susana Ascencio. UNiversity of Pittsburgh. 2004 * '' Loops -una historia sobre la música electronica-''. Javier Blánquez. Reservoir Editores. 2005. * '' Nor-tec Rifa Electronic Dance Music from Tijuana to the World''. Alejandro L. Madrid Oxford University Press. 2008.

References

External links