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Sidestepper is a Colombian band formed in 1996 by English DJ/producer Richard Blair (born 17 June 1965, London) and Colombian singer-songwriter and producer Iván Benavides. The group is one of the originators of the Colombian "electro cumbia" sound, influenced both by Afro-Colombian popular music styles like salsa and cumbia as well as electronic dance music such as dub and drum and bass. Sidestepper has featured a number of guest vocalists and musicians over the years who have since become well-known artists in their own right in Colombia, such as drummer Kike Egurrola (now with Bomba Estéreo), Gloria "Goyo" Martínez of ChocQuibTown, and Humberto Pernett. From 2009 the line-up has comprised vocalists Janio Coronado, Edgardo Garcés and Érika Muñoz, guitarist Teto Ocampo, drummer Pedro Ojeda, percussionist El Chongo, and Blair on bass/keyboards/programming. In 2004 they played at the Coachella Music Festival in the United States. ==History== The origins of the band can be traced back to 1992 when Richard Blair, then a studio engineer for Peter Gabriel's Real World Records label, found himself working on the album ''La Candela Viva'' by Totó la Momposina. Captivated by the mix of Latin and Afro-Caribbean sounds made by Totó and her band, he made the journey to Colombia to visit her and find out more about her music. Originally intending to stay for just a few weeks holiday, Blair ended up staying in Colombia for three years, as he immersed himself in the culture and the music of the country, funding his stay by producing and engineering the early albums by artists who would later go on to be some of Colombia's best known musicians, including ''Con el Corazon en la Mano'' by Aterciopelados and ''La Tierra del Olvido'' by Carlos Vives. While working on ''La Tierra del Olvido'' Blair had met the album's co-producer Iván Benavides, a singer-songwriter who had previously been part of the duo Iván y Lucía, and the two men began writing songs together. Returning to the UK in 1996, Blair began DJing under the name Sidestepper, and set about putting together a band of the same name, with the intention of playing live versions of his new songs mixing salsa, Afro-Colombian coastal music such as cumbia, and British dance music such as drum'n'bass and dub reggae.〔 Blair told the Colombian newspaper ''El Tiempo'' in 1998 that during his Colombian musical education he had found that the salsa music produced at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s had a "heavy feeling" to it, which he felt was equivalent to rock bands of the time such as Led Zeppelin and the current drum'n'bass scene, and which in his opinion was lacking in the modern commercial salsa productions. Sidestepper's first album, ''Southern Star'', was released on the small UK label Deep South in 1997, before signing to MTM in Colombia and Chris Blackwell's US-based label Palm Pictures worldwide to produce three more albums, ''More Grip'' (2000), ''3AM (In Beats We Trust)'' (2003) and ''Continental'' (2006). Benavides stopped writing for the group in 2007 when he moved back to Colombia from New York in order to concentrate on setting up his new project "Toda Via" to promote independent Colombian musicians.〔 (Biography of Iván Benavides as artistic producer of the 2010 "Gran Concierto Nacional", Colombian Ministry of Culture website )〕 In an interview with ''El Tiempo'' Blair dismissed the notion that Benavides had "left" the band, saying that he had never "joined" the group or been part of the live act, and that the likes of Benavides, Pernett and Martínez were simply part of a fluid collective that changed over time. Sidestepper released a mix album, ''The Buena Vibra Sound System'' in 2008, consisting of previously unreleased tracks and remixes of old songs. A compilation album titled ''15: The Best of 1996–2011'' was released in Colombia in 2011, preceded by a new single, "Justicia". Having been without a record contract since 2008, the band recorded their most recent album in between the individual members working on other musical projects, and raised money for the album's recording through the Pledge Music website.〔(Sidestepper album page on Pledge Music )〕 The album, ''Supernatural Love'', was released to Pledge Music subscribers in March 2015 and will have a full release via Real World Records 〔()〕 in January 2016. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sidestepper」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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