Name: Cholita Sound/Purdy Rocks/Caterina Purdy

Where She’s From: Santiago, Chile

Genre: Global Bass/Cumbia/Electro

When They Started: 2004

Most Like: Viva La Virgen, Anything ZZK

Sounds Like: Inca golden

As Cholita Sound, Caterina Purdy is easily one of the most eccentric artists making electro cumbia in the world today, and we’re not just talking about the Day-Glo provocations of her music videos and dramatically staged live shows. The visual artist turned producer is musically unconventional as well. Traditional Chilean sounds are not a go-to influence in dance music, even in global bass. But then, Purdy is Chilean and, well, Andean music is really pretty sick.

Let’s start by admitting that. Those eerie flutes, the hypnotic percussion, the haunting melodies? Come on. It’s good stuff. More to the point, it’s like a tinderbox of bone-dry raw materials waiting to be set on fire. On her releases Chulita Vol.01 and Ponte Free, Ms. Purdy proves she is just the right arsonist. In her hands, the stirring elements described above get cooked up with cheesy, squelchy bass synth and beats derived from cumbia, dembow and even dubstep making for a strangely psychoactive brew.

Her tracks are as danceable and tight as they are playful and unpredictable, with styles that shifting like a kaleidoscope. It reflects the artist’s restless nature. Cholita Sound is just one of her identities. As Purdy Rocks, she creates electro rock, and that moniker shelters further alter ego’s Monga and Shenga La Warrior.

Don’t worry about keeping track of it all, just hope that she takes her DIY stage extravaganza on the road soon. For now, get down with her lascivious/indigenous vision on “Choquechinchay El Jaguar”: