As Thievery Corporation, DC-based DJ/producers Rob Garza and Eric Hilton (pictured) have taken electronica to new heights of international appeal. The duo’s richly textured mid-tempo dance grooves are spiced up with elements of lounge, trip hop, acid jazz, dancehall and dub reggae, Indian classical, psychedelia, afro-beat and bossa nova. Thievery’s 2008 album, Radio Retaliation, was spurred by election season and is a politically-charged suite of songs, from the anti-establishment tone of “Sound the Alarm” to the Darfurian metaphors used in “Vampires.” A new cast of musical collaborators were brought on to give the album its kick, among them, Brazilian vocalist/guitarist Seu Jorge, Nigerian afro-beat prince Femi Kuti, Indian sitar virtuoso Anushka Shankar, Slovakian chanteuse/violinist Jana Andevska, and DC’s own “Godfather of Go Go,” Chuck Brown. Thievery Corporation’s live show incorporates a dynamic 15-member multi-cultural ensemble of vocalists and instrumentalists, with Garza and Hilton spinning in the middle of it all to create the music’s soundscape of rhythms and hues.
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.