The end of July witnessed the release of Arca’s ninth studio album, XXXXX. Which was preceded with an exclusive London listening party hosted by Latinx queer collective 2CPERREA, supported by XL Recordings. COLD Magazine tapped in for an early listen and sat down with Josefa Andrea, one half of the 2CPERREA duo.
The event took place at algha’s plantroom, a FLINTA, queer local heritage space in Hackney Wick. Upon entering, one couldn’t help but notice the smokey haze which filled the room, ornamented by long playful chains draping from the ceiling. Meanwhile, experimental divas in fierce outfits were dancing to the genre-defying, transcendent, beat-driven euphoria helmed by Arize! founder LOVECAT. The space felt like a world in itself. This charged, communal experience became both club night and ritual. As the listening party unfolded, the room ceded to the album, allowing it to breathe for the first time.
XXXXX peaks early with “Willow”. Ominous church bells and ticking hi-hats anchor the listener, while digital elements swirl overhead. “Heart” plays like a musical box caught in a digital warp with elements of classical elegance coming into confrontation with violent mechanical failure. It’s frantic and yet deeply emotional, unveiling vulnerabilities underneath the surface. “Raver” is a track of wonderful disorientation, perfectly capturing the complex duality of nightlife which can be as seductive and delightful as it is toxic and completely exhausting. “Taconeando”, is a masterclass in deconstructed Latin dance-pop with its rapid-fire mantras in Spanish. Phrases like “Yo sé que tú quieres que me venga” and “taconeando bajo las luces” repeat until they begin to shift form, akin to dysregulated mechanical chants. The result is a fierce, hyper-sexual anthem about reclaiming power on the dance floor.
As the unpredictable record played on, a special pole performance from Maya Luna and Ella Mitchelle captured the attention of the audience; bringing sound, light and movement together to create a truly striking experience. MaXXXim, a resident and curator for Playbody and one third of experimental trio SEMARĀ joined forces with 2CPERREA’S very own resident DJ JONE OF ARX. Latin club sounds met global rhythms, energising and connecting the room through a tapestry of hypnotic sets which thrummed with life.
With all of this in mind, we were eager to speak with Josefa from the 2CPERREA duo to learn more about what went into the event and her broader vision with the boundary pushing underground collective. Read below for COLD’s illuminating chat about the inspiration and effort that goes into building a safe space for London’s Latinx underground scene.
The Cold Magazine (CM): What’s the raison d’être of 2CPERREA, the core purpose that drives everything you do?
Josefa Andrea (J): Latin American artists, music, sounds and vibes. We started it to show people how fun it was, for everyone to come and dance. To give Latinx queers a space to listen to music from back home, but also to decolonise what Europe believes Latin music to be. It’s about platforming and introducing touring artists, sharing all kinds of Latin music – the nostalgic ones and the ones that are being made right now. It’s about making space for ourselves when it’s so easy for us to feel out of place.
CM: How has 2CPERREA evolved from your very first event to where you are today?
JA: I don’t think either of us thought it would grow as much, or that we would still be here in a way. Having grown up in Latin America, or with its roots, we all felt like the scene was missing that “something”.We missed Reggaeton/ Neoperreo and the music we grew to. We wanted to dance to it in a queer space where we would feel comfortable. There were 5 of us originally in the collective, the first event was invite only – £5 pay at the door in Fran’s (one of the original members) Fish Island warehouse. The lineup was basically members of the collective, Tedesco and Magnetic, we also invited Ivicore to play without knowing her after seeing her open for Ms Nina at Oslo Hackney, and some other east London DJs that we knew were from Latin America.
We just wanted to throw a party to show our friends how fun our music was, we never expected the turn out. By 11PM there was a massive queue going around the block. We had to cancel the event by midnight because Fran was going to get evicted, ended up in a nearby warehouse with
Ivi playing a YouTube set from a laptop and woke up with hundreds of messages of when the next one was – no refunds, everyone just wanted to come to the next party. We’ve since put on events across London, Berlin, Barcelona, Prague, Amsterdam and Brussels, and built real partnerships with collectives like The Planet, Club Are, Hoe Mies and Latineo. The landscape for Latin American music in Europe has changed and so we have adapted our curation a bit, depending on the space, capacity, etc – but the ethos stays the same. We do try to have Perreo present in all our events, so make sure to come early and stay late to make sure you catch it!
CM: The full spectrum of Latin music is endless. What’s your thought process when curating a lineup with that in mind?
JA: We don’t treat the genres as separate lanes. Reggaeton, Guaracha, Tribal, Dembow, then the harder end with Progressive and Techhouse all belong in the same night if the flow is right. It’s about curating a journey, not a genre showcase. The question I ask isn’t, “is this authentic enough,” it’s “does this move the room and does it come from somewhere real.” I want the person who came for Perreo and the person who came for hard House to both find their moment, and ideally to fall for the other half by the end.
CM: At a time when so much of Western culture seems to be leaning into minimalism, restraint and conformity, how do you embrace Latin maximalism?
JA: We’re loud, excessive, sweaty and sentimental, all at the same time, and that’s the point. For us maximalism isn’t an aesthetic choice, it’s inherited. Joy at that volume is its own kind of resistance, especially for queer and migrant bodies who’ve been told to make themselves smaller. So we don’t tone it down to fit the room. We bring the room up to meet it.
CM: Hosting Arca’s listening party for her new album XXXXX is no small feat. Can you share a bit about how that came to be and how it feels? Is it something you ever imagined?
JA: Co-presenting Arca’s listening party with XL Recordings still feels surreal to say out loud. With Tedesco being from Venezuela, we’ve always been aware and big fans of her – we always dreamt of having her at one of our events or collaborating with her in any way, so when we saw an email from their team we knew we had to make it happen. Arca represents a lot of our community, as a trans Latin artist who never made herself smaller for Europe, unapologetically herself in so many ways. So being able to host such a big moment for her was not something we took lightly. It’s a reminder of how far the community has carried each other.
CM: How do you stay true to queer-Latin identity while hosting a mixed crowd that includes people less familiar with the culture?
JA: I think over the past four years we’ve managed to do a great job of keeping our crowd true to its core; people that love the music, love to dance and genuinely want to be there. I think when we started we were a bit of the shiny new thing and we had a lot of people come that didn’t necessarily get it? They just wanted to be there, which is fair enough! Some of those people fell in love with it and have been coming ever since.
What we do make sure is that every new person that arrives understands where they are, the music we are playing and what to expect. We’ve been working with a great team of door girls for a few years now that understand that, and we take the time to talk to people at the door if needed. We aim to keep the space as safe as possible and I must admit that I’m very proud of the community we have built over time. Everyone’s welcome, but you’re a guest in a space that centres queer-Latin people, and that framing matters.
CM: Where do you draw your inspiration from, being part of a community where representation is still so rare?
JA: From the community itself, mostly. The artists who kept making this music when no one in the industry here was listening, the other collectives building in parallel across Europe, the people who travel across the city to be there, and from the generations before us, the sound systems and the queer spaces that existed long before we did, often at much higher cost.
Representation being rare is exactly the reason to keep going. Every full room is proof it was always wanted. We always say that 2CPERREA is the people in that room that night. We wouldn’t be what we are or where we are if it wasn’t for the energy that’s created at every event. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!
