Sidestepper emerged with the arrival of Richard Blair in Colombia.
Initially a producer for Peter Gabriel’s Real World label in the UK, Richard was sent to Colombia to work on an artistic collaboration with Toto la Momposina (the local Cesaria Evora).
He quickly met a number of Colombian musicians and fell hopelessly in love with their music.
He created Sidestepper in the late nineties, triggering the converging trend between electronic and cumbia so prevalent today.
The 2003 album Mas Papaya was a phenomenon in Colombia and throughout South America, with the hit record heard non-stop on the radio. Electro-cumbia was born.
Sidestepper is widely acknowledged as the man who started the new music scene.
Some members of the collective went on to work on other projects and became the pioneers of this new scene, such as Choc Quib Town and Bomba Estéreo.
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