Biography
Ondatropica emerged as an expansive musical project jointly directed by Mario Galeano of Frente Cumbiero and Los Pirañas alongside Will “Quantic” Holland. Depending on the date and venue, the group’s roster fluctuated between ten and forty-two participants. Galeano journeyed from Bogota to Santiago de Cali, where Holland resided, and the two first crossed paths inside a local record shop. Once their purchases were complete, they continued the conversation over coffee and began planning a joint recording. Twelve months afterward they convened for a concentrated three-week session inside the historic Discos Fuentes facility in Medellin, Colombia. The resulting self-titled collection appeared on Miles Cleret’s Soundway imprint, fusing cumbia, salsa, Afro-Caribbean gaita, ska, hip-hop, dub, and funk into a single sonic wave—“onda” signifying precisely that collision. A streamlined ten-piece edition of the ensemble subsequently carried the classic Discos Fuentes songbook across stages in both the Americas and Europe. During the same twelve-month span, Inversiones Cronos issued the Los Irreales Mixtape with support from the British Council, Sonido del Valle, Radio Nacional of Colombia, and Movistar. The following year Ondatropica delivered an EP anchored by a reading of Fela Kuti’s “Chop ’n’ Quench” plus two accompanying remixes.
Holland relocated to New York in 2014 yet returned to Bogota the next year to rejoin Galeano. Together they assembled another sizable roster and launched sessions for a follow-up album whose blueprint called for work in two distinct settings: the capital city and Old Providence Island, also known as Isla de Providencia. These sites, though geographically and culturally distant, shared reputations as centers of musical invention—Bogota through its underground network of punk-inflected, D.I.Y. artists, and Providence through its ongoing reinterpretation of Colombian identity via regional folklore alongside thriving dancehall and reggae communities. The founders noted that the island’s history, first colonized by the British and later incorporated into the Colombian republic, produced an intricate blend of African, English, and Spanish lineages ideally suited to their exploration of Caribbean cultural synthesis. Their aim was to trace the unexpected intersections among markedly divergent musical traditions and to document how those traditions merged. Across both locations the project captured thirty-five performers drawn from widely varying ages, stylistic backgrounds, and artistic experiences. Soundway released the completed Baile Bucanero in spring 2017.
Holland relocated to New York in 2014 yet returned to Bogota the next year to rejoin Galeano. Together they assembled another sizable roster and launched sessions for a follow-up album whose blueprint called for work in two distinct settings: the capital city and Old Providence Island, also known as Isla de Providencia. These sites, though geographically and culturally distant, shared reputations as centers of musical invention—Bogota through its underground network of punk-inflected, D.I.Y. artists, and Providence through its ongoing reinterpretation of Colombian identity via regional folklore alongside thriving dancehall and reggae communities. The founders noted that the island’s history, first colonized by the British and later incorporated into the Colombian republic, produced an intricate blend of African, English, and Spanish lineages ideally suited to their exploration of Caribbean cultural synthesis. Their aim was to trace the unexpected intersections among markedly divergent musical traditions and to document how those traditions merged. Across both locations the project captured thirty-five performers drawn from widely varying ages, stylistic backgrounds, and artistic experiences. Soundway released the completed Baile Bucanero in spring 2017.
Albums
Singles
