Deltron 3030 Featuring Juan Alderete: City Rising From the Ashes

Juan Alderete has such a singular voice on the bass, and yet he can be so versatile. He got his first break in the metal scene, spent plenty of years with innovative rockers Mars Volta, and has his own experimental duo Big Sir with vocalist Lisa Papineau. Through it all, he’s always been about hip hop.

“When [I joined Racer X], I was into really New Wave and then I was into some prog, but really I was into hip hop,” he told us in an interview. “I actually had a 1973 LTD, and it had this big, big trunk with big speakers. I would just bump low-end bass, and it was all early ’80s hip hop that I would play. I was always into hip hop.”

So it’s no doubt that his playing fits in perfectly on tour with Deltron 3030, a hip hop group formed by Dan the Automator, Del the Funky Homosapien and Kid Koala. Alderete has been around the world with the group, but here’s the group in studio performing for Off The Avenue.

Alderete lays down an unshakable groove for the song’s foundation on a pretty sweet looking Goya bass borrowed from Jonathan Hischke. Check out his unbelievably smooth use of effects at :23 and 2:20.