R+M

an intergalactic DJ Duo

IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?: A COMPILATION OF LOVE SONGS is a handmade 4-page “zine” that holds a 45 RPM Vinyl Record and a QR code to a digital Spotify playlist crafted by R+M—a DJ duo signed to ¡OYE RECORDS!, a record company based in The Third World.

Album Synopsis:

R + M are an archival DJ duo from ¡The Third World! Their debut compilation album, IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?: A COMPILATION OF LOVE SONGS, has uncovered an intergalactic force that can’t be stopped by the man: AMOR. A love that is built from a shared marginalized center—a tool of resistance!

This album is the start of the Chicana/x/o Tales universe—setting the tone for all the details that build a universe where we question the origins of our pain.

Although we can’t find these people and places on “our” internet, archives, or in “our” western frameworks—it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. No matter how much my elementary teacher tried to drill in me: “horses don’t dance.” No matter how much others don’t believe in our stories, or in our existence, it is our responsibility to one another: that we do not deny our truths.

My take on romantic realism (death is more certain than hope)—our stories do not validate our oppression, they offer us a real, a true, a certain more certain than hope, they deliver us a: what if?

To all of our enemies: ¡AND STILL THEY DANCE!