Planktonman

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One of the founding members of the Nortec Collective and now stepping out on his own, Plaktonman was the first to introduce jazz guitar onto norteño breakbeat tracks (1999’s “No Liazi Jaz”). This distinct sound is created by taking traditional/popular Mexican music such as the brass heavy banda and the accordion accents of norteño music, and reconfiguring it to create a brand new mood. This clever mixture of Mexican traditional folk sounds with freewheeling jazz riffs quickly became one of his signature sounds.

Plankton man, (born Ignacio Chavez, Nashio for short) first burst on the music scene in the early 1990’s in his native Ensenada, Baja California Nashio began his musical endeavor as a guitarist for the now defunct electro-rock ensemble Sonios. The group’s brand of rock/acid jazz was in no small part a product of Nashio’s blues and funk influences. The band became well known through northwestern Mexico and the southern California Latin music scene, they were recognized not only for their music, but for their visual component (cover design, etc) as well.

He learned the importance of providing an interesting visual aspect to his work. Through the group, he was exposed to all kinds of music and musicians –After completing Sonios’ lifecycle, Nashio took all the experience gathered and used it to take on a new project, he turned to electronic music as an output, Norteño breakbeat as a language to communicate with, but as it’s clear in his music, he’s never stopped looking back to his roots.

Plankton man seems to be only comfortable when on the move, parallel to his solo career; He is part of “Niño Astronauta” . As innovative as any of his other musical ventures, this project brings a musical offering that is as original as it is challenging -- A LIVE drum and bass act that takes the genre to the next level – Nacho gets to play his trusty guitar as well as keyboards and a wisely yet sparingly used vocoder in this one.

Nashio is also half of the new duo "Kobol" , alongside Argel Medina (drummer of Niño Astronauta). Their sound is a mixture of organic glitch and digital jazz played live with drum pads and a laptop.