I am facing a dilemma: how does the founder of an independent music label – whose very
survival depends on album sales – justify creating a project highlighting, even praising piracy,
the very plague that has brought many labels to the brink of bankruptcy?

I first became aware of “pirata” LPs in 2020 while hunting for records in Mexico City: their
weird-looking DIY covers – and the edited, tweaked, EQ-manipulated and pitched-down
music they contained – got me hooked. There was no denying it: the more I became immersed
in the world of these illicit productions the more I became intrigued; and before long it became
crystal clear that I would one day release my own compilation compiled out of pirated compilations.

But beyond my own fascination with that parallel world, it was undeniable that the “pirata”
movement had played a significant role in shaping the musical scene of Mexico. So how did
it all start?
During the 1980s, a group of music dealers and record collectors from Mexico City joined forces
to create a series of illegally manufactured vinyl records containing rare and highly-sought hits
from Perú, Ecuador, Colombia and beyond.
At the time, Mexico City’s dance-party scene was ruled by the sonideros, a highly developed
network of mobile soundsystem operators. The popularity of the sonideros led to a growing
demand for tropical music, as their fan base became increasingly hungry for the “exclusive”
hits associated with particular sonidos.
Additionally record dealers were getting frustrated with the music industry constantly “feeding”
them streams of mediocre records and from this frustration came the idea of compiling and
manufacturing LPs on which every song was a hit: “no matter where the needle dropped, it
had to be a song capable of igniting the party.”
These bootleg compilations – known as “pirata” – were pressed during graveyard shift on
recycled vinyl in editions of no more than 500; they were cheaply produced and sold just as
cheaply to people who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford them. They were played
extensively in every corner of Mexico’s heavily-populated barrios where, in addition to educating
the ears of the youngsters, they also promoted some of the best tropical music recorded in
Latin America.