Moombahton: A slow beat that's fast on the rise

You don't have to be in great shape to get down to moombahton. The D.C.-born dance music micro-genre is languid, bass-heavy and slow. You can get away with a few knee bends and still look enthusiastic.

On Wednesday night, U Street Music Hall hosted the second Moombahton Massive party - an entire night dedicated to the newly minted style and its founding DJs. Munchi, Sabo, Heartbreak and Dave Nada spent four-plus hours blasting their Latin-tinged two-step beats off of a laptop while dancers bobbed like watermelons in a swimming pool. Up front, close to the booth, things were a little more spirited. Topping out at 110 beats per minute, the music is slow enough that true believers can dance to it double time.

Nada - who also deejays techno and house music as part of the duo Nadastrom - invented moombahton in 2009 by slowing down the pitch of a Dutch house record. When slowed, the music took on the character of reggaeton - a popular style of Latin dance music - albeit with a thicker, deeper low-end presence.

Listening to moombahton at a club is a bit like getting tossed around inside an off-center washing machine. The rhythms rely on herky-jerky triplets, rather than evenly paced kick-drum hits. Melodic hooks are largely absent - replaced by snippets of hip-hop verses and quick catchphrases. Chief among these: "Turn up the bass."

The sound quickly leapt off Nada's laptop and into the global dance-music community. A YouTube search will yield a bundle of moombah-inspired remixes. Tracks frequently make the airwaves on WLZL (99.1 FM). And the sound has caught the ear of big-name producers such as Diplo - who has worked extensively with hip-hop artist M.I.A. - and the Neptunes. It has fostered regional spinoffs such as boombahchero and moombahcore.

But there's a distinct Beltway sensibility to moombahton. D.C. audiences have always preferred their dance rhythms unhurried - from go-go to Thievery Corporation's easygoing down-temp grooves. The music Nada blasted at the Moombahton Massive party shared this sensibility.

It has a wide audience, though. The mostly packed dance floor was crowded with a "Star Wars" cantina worth of fashion statements - mohawks, dreadlocks and some "Flashdance"-inspired '80s garb.

When the night hit its emotional peak somewhere around 1:45 a.m., Nada played tracks that swelled into pummeling, percussive crescendos. But the resolutions defied conventional dance-floor logic. When the drums dropped back into the mix, they had slowed down.