dinky general press

URB – april 2003 – next 100 issue

As the new york hipster exodus to Brooklyn continues, lofts are the new mega-clubs where anything goes, and there’s no hawkish security at every door.  For dinky (no more “miss”), it’s the perfect environment to get loose in a city that’s spent the past decade tightening up.  “we want to show people good music,” she enthuses, “and at the same time be able to party without being afraid of the stupid laws.”

The Chilean DJ/Producer could easily have moved to the techno utopia of berlin, along with fellow Chile-born artists Ricardo Villalobos, Christian Vogel and Atom Heart.  She even went so far as to release her debut album, the dextrous ambient/dance-floor comibination of Melodias Venenonas on Germany ’s Traum imprint.  But the easy path to the German highlife lacked the seduction of New York ’s mean streets, even if it means battling some good old American prudency.

“I’m a revolutionary!” she insists.  “I want to change the mentality that Americans have toward nightlife.  It’s so repressed that I want to cry and scream, ‘Why!?  There’s no point!’”

The results of working and playing in the Big Apple are all over the darkly beautiful Black Cabaret (Carpark), which brings pitched-down disco, ambient minimalism and artsy concepts to a beguiling boil.

- Joshua Glazer

Xlr8r – march/april 2003

Chilean powerhouse pulls apart the techno patriarchy beat by beat.

Deep in the heart of Chinatown , Alejandra Iglesias is, um, manning the decks at Manhattan ’s hottest afterhours party, Dancing Makes Happy.  True to the event’s name, the Santiago , Chile native cranks up the joy, banging out an ecstatic mix of skeletal-yet-sexy tunes for a mixed crowd of downtown fashionistas and uptown laptop nerds.  In her sleek black business suit, the DJ cuts a striking pose, the image of minimal techno’s repressed sexuality unleashed in all of its glory.

“People say a girl is more fun to watch,” she claims.  In the sweaty confines of Canal Street ’s 21, it’s impossible to disagree.

Iglesias is better known as Dinky, the latest export from Chile ’s famed techno manufactory.  Like countrymen Dandy Jack and Ricardo Villalobos, the 28-year-old churns out a uniquely sensual brand of techno, a blissful merging of Teutonic severity and Latin passion.  Dinky’s Traum 12-inches may take the shape of muscular floor-fillers, but their pulse is distinctyly feminine, an emotional counterbalance to the oft-icy tone of digital body music.  While many in techno’s micro-community cast a jaundiced eye toward melody, this Chilean bravely infuses her vinyl concoctions with generous portions of tunefulness.

“If you go to a techno show, 80% of the crowd is male,” she contends.  “But when I perform, I have a lot of girls come out, maybe because they see the feminine side that I put into it.  For females, it’s easier to put emotion into a song.  Men are more likely to be afraid because when they were little, they were taught not to cry, not to show emotion.”

On her first full-length, Black Cabaret, Dinky steps off the accelerator and puts her keen pop sensibilities in the foreground.  Billed by the producer as an exercise in “minimal pop”, the record fuses bulbous synth tones with chilling no-wave vocals.  With track titles like “no love” and “white lie”, Black Cabaret plays like a somber meditation on America , the (not-always-so) beautiful.  Dinky admits that she’s deeply ambivalent about her adopted country.

“I’m not so much an America fan,” she confesses.  “the laws here are crazy.  It’s fascist in a way, and so restrictive.  But at the same time, there’s a lot of power here, a lot of drive.  If you live in New York , you have to be fast, you have to work hard.  And it’s beautiful that there are so many cultures in this city.  That gives me a lot of inspiration.

-martin turenne

village voice - february 14th 2003

FLY LIFE

dinky's INS techno-cality

Most people don't get a going-away bash that rages for almost 24 hours, with Richie Hawtin spinning a surprise set. But then, most people aren't Dinky, the sweet and lovely local techno DJ-producer. The DJ's raucous party last Saturday night at 59 Canal Street found her and co-host Magda playing till five in the morning at the Chinatown karaoke bar. The crazed festivities continued at fellow DJ Troy's Williamsburg loft, where Hawtin blessed the lucky 30 or so revelers with more tunes until the next afternoon. "It got a little crazy," giggled the lady of honor.

Dinky's departure is sudden and sad. The DJ is originally from Chile and had been living in the U.S. for the past six years thanks to an artist visa. But when she applied for a renewal in 2002, she was denied, and thanks to what she says was incompetent counsel, Dinky (real name Alejandra Iglesias) did not realize that her departure date had to be swift—six months after receiving notice of the denial.

Post-9-11, visas are particularly hard to come by thanks to the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, which since the attack has detrimentally affected many foreign artists—particularly those from nations on the government's watch list, like Cuba and Iran—who have been denied entry for performances. (Dinky's in good company: 22 Cuban musicians scheduled to appear at last fall's Latin Grammys also had visa problems, including acclaimed pianist Chucho Valdes.)

The timing for Dinky is impeccably bad. Her debut artist album, Black Cabaret, on local label Carpark, is due to hit stores this week, and her four-week North American tour with Stewart Walker and Greg Shiff had to be canceled (though Walker and Shiff are going it alone).

In the last six months, Dinky got married to her longtime beau, who she has dated for several years. "I don't believe in marriage," she said just before she left, "but this sort of pushed us." Plus, she sighed, "I'm in love." Curiously, being married to an American citizen hurts her cause, rather than helps it. She would have to stay in the country for two years waiting for paperwork to clear, which would make touring overseas in support of her new album, not to mention visiting her parents and grandparents in Chile, impossible.

In the meantime, the DJ will be spreading her brand of experimental techno around the world. She's got dates set up in South America and will appear this June at the Sonar Festival in Barcelona with Carpark labelmate (and owner) Todd Hyman. Ciao, but only for now—we hope.

- tricia romano

Venus Magazine – Spring 2003

Beat life

Miss Dinky and her refreshing productions

For miss dinky, life is all about the little things.  The Chilean-born New Yorker (nee alejandra iglesias) has an ear for the seemingly insignificant, the mundane and even the mechanical – and she showcases this quirk to great effect with her music.

So, what inspires the dancer-turned-DJ/producer? “Life”, she chuckles.  “I know that sounds a bit lame, but life is it.  My friends, my family, what they say, the streets, the cars, someone breathing.”

If all this sounds a trifle too easy and a tad trite, all it takes is a quick listen to her work on respected independent labels like Traum and Carpark to understand what Iglesias merely alludes to with her words.

As a producer, Iglesias layers subtle clicks and pops into looped drum lines and winding melodies, creating elegant, balanced and sometimes hard-hitting songs that work just as well on a cerebral level as they do on a sweaty dance floor.

Behind the decks, she maintains that same sense of controlled energy, building her sets with minimal, streamlined electronica before unleashing a break-taking glut of techno scorchers.

With several singles and EPs to her credit, Iglesias has proved herself adept at navigating the deeper and murkier extremes of electronic music; with the release of her upcoming projects, Iglesias is set to reveal a more thorough, fleshed-out musical bent.

“Working with singles is more about putting music out by itself, without a final purpose,” she remarks.  “Working on an album [requires] more of a concept, something that goes deeper, like a book or a movie, with a beginning, a climax and an end.  It takes more time and ideas.”

Dinky’s recently released Black Cabaret LP was constructed in a mere six months, and she plans to release a 12-inch on Traum of Cologne, Germany, in March 2003 and another on her own label this summer.  Maintaining such a jam-packed schedule is not something that comes easily to most, but Dinky seems to have it figured out.

The minutiae of daily living is intertwined with her musical output, so it makes sense that she’s very conscious of how she spends her time.  “I sometimes take dance classes,” she offers, citing her years of training in classical and modern dance, “which really helps to relieve the stress of nightlife and at the same time gets my brain ready to compose and concentrate.  I have a lot of discipline from all those years that I was a dancer, so for me, it’s quite easy to be productive and concentrate and party at the same time.”

-          Christine hsieh