M.A.K.U. SoundSystem

Founded in New York City seven years ago by Colombian-born guitarist/percussionist Camilo Rodriguez, M.A.K.U SoundSystem is an eight-piece band that distills cumbia grooves and jazz improvisation, punk energy, psychedelia and folkloric Colombian cadences into a dance-floor shaking sound. The self-described “immigrant band” is drawn mostly from New York’s extensive Colombian expat community, and the group’s songs often address social issues facing Colombia and the search for diasporic identity. Combining the name of a long-isolated southern Colombian indigenous tribe with the moveable DJ teams that supplied the long soundtrack for revelry in Jamaica and Colombia, M.A.K.U SoundSystem “stands for a party for the people.”