• "He emboldened me to record a solo bass album"

    Carlos Benavent

  • "Of all those who made indie labels in the 80s, he was the most upright"

    Jack Planets

  • "The driving force behind flamenco being the way it is"

    Josemi Carmona

  • "He spoke to Low Blows before we had the opportunity to record"

    Germán Coppini

NUEVOS MEDIOS

Nuevos Medios It was created in 1982 by Cucha Salazar and Mario Pacheco. Both had gained some experience from various odd jobs in the world of pop, flamenco, and jazz music and were encouraged to join the powerful independent movement of the early XNUMXs by friends like Joe Boyd (Hannibal Records), Tony Wilson (Factory) and Manfred Eicher (ECM).

The company's intention was to produce Spanish popular music with an international accent. That philosophy was graphically expressed in its now popular logo, lovingly designed by Joan Miró. That anagram was the label's first success and became its illuminating mandala.

The first choices were flamenco and jazz (Pepe Habichuela, Rafael Riqueni, Carles Benavent, Jorge Pardo...) but Nuevos Medios He was also responsible for crucial recordings of the "movida" (La Mode, Low Blows...) of great lyrical force.

Another notable aspect during the first years of activity of Nuevos Medios It was his anticipation of the phenomenon known today as world music, beginning to produce -already in 1983- a series of classics of Cuban popular music (Beny Moré, Bola de Nieve, María Teresa Vera, El Trío Matamoros...). A line of work that continued with the compilation of the Peruvian composer Chabuca Granda, of Mexican singers and composers such as Agustín Lara and Guty Cárdenas, of the Argentine tango legend Roberto «Polaco» Goyeneche or the co-production of the album pacantó, by the Colombian singer Totó la Momposina. In addition, the company recorded together with Hannibal Records, the two volumes of songhai: a pioneering project, involving musicians from Spain and Mali, globally acclaimed and considered one of the most prominent and influential fusion records of the XNUMXs.

At the same time, Nuevos Medios distributed in Spain great musical references from labels such as Factory, ECM, Hannibal Records, Rough Trade, One Little Indian, Play It Again Sam, Tommy Boy, Rykodisc, Fantasy/Stax, Vanguard, Disques Dreyfus, Stern's Music, Crammed Discs, World Circuit , Melopea Discos, Fania, Cooperative Music, and most recently Stones Throw Records.

In the late nineties Nuevos Medios It was considered as "The Tamla Motown of Flamenco", and its sound as well as the proposal of Pata Negra, Ketama, Ray Heredia, Tomatito, La Barbería del Sur, Kiko Veneno, José el Francés, Martirio, Miguel Poveda, Juan Manuel Cañizares, Potito, etc., were considered determining influences in the consolidation of a new form of popular music, truly original, with class, charm and attitude. Nuevo Flamenco took to the streets and began to occupy the charts, so the multinationals began to take the company's best-selling artists. That, plus the general crisis of the independent labels and the sudden death of Cucha Salazar threatened the stability of the label.

Fortunately Nuevos Medios reacted with new projects (Diego Carrasco, Tino Di Geraldo, Tabletom, Diego Amador, Menta de Agua, Josemi Carmona, Son de la Frontera, Tomasito, Mayte Martin, Las Migas...) broadening the limits of flamenco and exhibiting the qualities of the company : a determined tendency to rhythmic originality, an open attitude, poise, unapologetic Europeanism and a rare ability to combine popular forms and sophistication.