rap, tap, tap of the drum stick and the trumpets begin to scream. Banda Fugazz is on stage, shaking their bodies and smiling to the rhythm of "Las Chicas Romanticas." Their eyes move around the dancing crowd making eye contact with people and laughing with the happiness of the moment. The energy builds and everyone is in a trance, thinking of nothing else except the music flowing in and out of their souls.

In Spanish, the word, fugazz, means a shooting star. For 10 immigrants from Jalisco, Mexico, the word represents a time of ancient tradition, love, friendship and musical life.

Banda Fugazz is a techno music band, with members ranging in age from 13 to 38, who travel Northern California in hopes of spreading their new style of Mexican corrido en quebradita to the Latino Community.

The corrido is one of the most significant popular forms of music from which the Mexican composer can draw for creative inspiration. Quebradita is a recent change of musical style and dance which has become the popular Mexican techno music of the '90s and sounds more upbeat. Unlike American techno music which uses electronic mixing, it merely uses more horns and a faster pace of music for dancing.

"We are both romantic and instrumental, and we are corrido en quebradita, which means techno," says Manuel Marcelo, 19, the only fluent English-speaking member.

MAIL PRISM (prism@sfsu.edu)      
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