Global Based Is Bringing International Sounds to Portland's Dance Music Community
The dance music scene in Portland has experienced exponential growth in the past decade with venues like Barn Radio, Process, and The Den popping up around town and an impressively diverse crew of DJs and promoters making events happen. For a city that talks a big game about its so-called progressive politics but often walks a rather conservative path, it’s the folks crowding the dancefloors and DJ booths that are providing a true vision of inclusiveness, mutual support, and collective joy.
One of the best ways to see this in action is to attend an event organized by Global Based. The Portland collective has, since 2012, plugged an unseemly gap in the cultural calendar, opening up ears and hips to electronic music genres and subgenres rooted deeply in the Latinx, LGBTQ+, and Black communities.
“When I go about booking [DJs],” says Erick Reyes, the DJ known as Mijo who has been leading the charge at Global Based since 2014, “I’m always going to put our people on first: always POC, always Latino folk. When it comes to headliners, the support acts, even our media team and other creatives, I’m always going to prioritize our people first.”
Among those people are a wealth of local talent, like Papi Fimbres, the mutli-hyphenate musician and DJ known best for his involvement with Orquestra Pacifico Tropical; DJ ALoSo, a former New Yorker who founded club night Fever Dream and is a sure hand at spinning reggaeton, dancehall, trap, and house; and Lapaushi, an artist originally from Ecuador whose mixes are an intoxicating blend of cumbia, Marimba, and funk.
Even more impressive is the talent Global Based has put the spotlight on here in Portland. Last month, for example, Reyes and his team brought in Armana Khan, the self-proclaimed “Pakistani princess” that brought a high energy set to White Owl Social Club, as well as Zack Fox, who you may recognize from his recurring role on Abbott Elementary but is a sure hand at mixing house and electro. And this Sunday, Global Based will hold their last Day Pari of 2026 with a quartet of locals supporting DJ Slugo, the Chicagoan who is an architect of the speedy, head nodding genre known as ghetto house.
The growth of Global Based over the past 14 years feels especially monumental when Reyes reveals over our video conference call that it was initially intended to be just a one-off event. “Some DJs wanted a party to play international music,” he remembers, “It wasn’t meant to become anything. They asked me to play because I was one of the few DJs in Portland playing that kind of music.” Shortly after that, Reyes visited L.A. for a festival and started sampling the underground dance music scene. He came back, fired up and asked to help take this Global Based idea to the next level.
“Honestly, it started getting a lot of traction,” Reyes says. “It started getting really big really fast. I just slowly took it over and gave it its branding and identity.”
Since then, the team has ballooned to eight people, including Reyes’s longtime friend Laila Cruz who serves as the creative director and communications director but who first came to know Global Based as an attendee of their events.
“We had a big friend group and, for a lot of us, this was our space where we go and hang out and dance,” Cruz says. “It was music that we didn’t hear in the electronic dance music scene. It had beats that resonated with our cultural backgrounds, and we didn’t really hear that in Portland so we really gravitated towards it. I really owe it to that friend group for dancing to this music that no one really knew how to dance to. And we felt so safe going to these events.”
Cruz is not alone in that. Global Based nights tend to be packed with bodies, all of them in motion and in thrall to the music. And unlike many of the parties I’ve been to, folks that hit up their regular shows at Holocene or any of their Day Paris go all out, feeling emboldened to dress up for the occasion and foreground either their cultural background or their sexual preferences. It’s a beautiful thing to witness.
Unfortunately there are still occasions when the larger music community dismisses this dynamic community. Just recently, Global Based was urged to consider partnering with Tabor Dance, a nonprofit that holds regular spring and summer parties, usually at Mt. Tabor Park. Reyes had his reservations about joining forces with that crew, but was pushed to go ahead by a member of the GB team.
“Our designer made flyers and I started getting the lineup together,” Reyes says. “We were talking to a friend’s uncle to have a food vendor there to sell tacos.” But when the final artwork for the event was sent out, Tabor Dance turned around and announced a completely different party for that same date with an all-white DJ lineup.
While the apparent explanation is that the person that Global Based had been in contact with was let go from Tabor Dance and the ball was dropped, Reyes still remains frustrated with the entire situation and has been vocal on social media about getting an apology and some compensation for the work they put into the planned party.
“This isn’t the first time that they treated us like this,” he says, “talking down to us like we’re lesser than. I did not like how they were talking to [our team member] and he wasn’t saying anything. He wasn’t standing up for himself. So I was like, ‘I’m gonna say something.’ Then I said something and the whole city went on fire.”
To date, there’s been no resolution, but the entire situation is further fuel to Global Based’s hopes to be able to some day own their own venue that they can control rather than relying on the spaces around town to crack their doors open.
“I really want to establish more cemented roots in this city,” says Cruz. “I want to own property and give back. I want to be able to host community events and have it be a multi-purpose space for artists.”
“The main goal,” Reyes adds, “is to be able to create freely without micromanagement and to just be in complete control.”
Global Based’s final 2026 Day Pari is this Sunday, September 13 at White Owl Social Club (1305 SE 8th Ave). Doors at 4pm. On the bill: DJ Slugo, Father Fannie, DJ Dissolve, Patrona, and Fortune. 21+ Click here for tickets.
