South American cumbia gets the remix treatment at Tormenta Tropical

Cumbia has been popular in regional variants throughout South America for decades. The keyboard, percussion, and occasional accordion sounds fundamental to the musical style are now being chopped, looped, and otherwise creatively manipulated with electronic bleeps and hip-hop beats in cultural centers like Buenos Aires. It was there that Bay Area DJs Disco Shawn and Oro11 met and shared enough excitement over this new electro hybrid to bring it back here in the form of their new record label Bersa Discos and club night "Tormenta Tropical." The party blends these grooves with Brazilian funk and homegrown hip-hop. The next Tormenta Tropical features New York DJ Star Eyes and SF live electronic act Lemonade on Saturday, Jan. 5, at Rickshaw Stop at 10 p.m. Admission is $8; call 861-2011 or visit www.rickshawstop.com for more info. -— Tamara Palmer

Toph One is a local scribe (and, in the spirit of full disclosure, a regular contributor to SF Weekly) who moonlights as a DJ and event promoter under the RedWine banner. His current mission is to revive his late-'90s party "Funkside" with its still-prescient mix of Yay Area hip-hop classics, dancehall, funk, and electro boogie. The new "Funkside" takes place every Saturday night with Toph and a special spinning only vinyl (they'll eschew CDs and digital mixing programs). Opening night with DJ B-Cause goes down on Saturday, Jan. 5, at Nickie's at 10 p.m. Admission is $5 (free before 11 p.m.); call 255-0300 or visit www.nickies.com for more info. — T.P.