For years, a Tijuana party was synonymous with a Nortec party.
The homegrown collective, whose name refers to the blending of electronic music and regional Mexican norteño sounds, is best known for pairing bouncy tubas, shrill trumpets, and crazed accordions with voicebox vocals, borderland lyrics, and drumbox beats. The result? A genre unlike anything anyone had ever heard before, appropriately reflective of Tijuana.
Now, after more than a decade, Ramon Amezcua and Pepe Mogt, the Latin Grammy-nominated duo known as Bostich and Fussible, responsible for exporting the Nortec sound to sold-out shows all over the globe, have finally said “adios.” September brought their last album, Motel Baja.
On the agenda is one last world tour, and then both plan to focus on solo projects. Motel Baja’s title track says it best: “Life is like a piñata, filled with candy to the brim. Goodbye Tijuana, where the party never ends. When we check out mañana, another one begins.”
Fussible and Bostich’s “Tijuana Makes Me Happy” (2007) was nothing short of a household hashtag | Photo by Josue Castro