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- [00:00]
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Felix Contreras
From NPR Music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras.
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Ana Maria Sayer
And I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Let the chisme begin. The chisme is Felix. You've been away and now you're back. So did you bring me something good? Because if not, it was a waste to send you on vacation.
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Felix Contreras
I wrote to a lot of good music.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Okay.
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Felix Contreras
But you get to go first this week. Really? Yeah.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Oh, well, I brought something that you're gonna be quite, very, extremely excited about. Las Anes have a new album out. Everyone get excited. It's called Dualismo Magico. And I'm gonna play you a track, the first track off the album, which is called Sebolla.
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Felix Contreras
I am fascinated by this group. Oh, my gosh.
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Ana Maria Sayer
They never miss. They never miss, Felix. It's the harmonies, but there's also just something about their tones. Like, the way they mix together is so perfect and magical and, like, everything you would want from one of these kind of, like, decadent albums that makes you actually sit with it and, like, wait for the voices to come in and wait for the percussion. Everything is really slow, but in this way that, like, is really gratifying.
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Felix Contreras
I like how they. That really slow, groovy cumbia thing that they have around this one. Yeah.
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Ana Maria Sayer
And that's what's so cool about, you know, they obviously lean always into these really Andean sounds. And the cool thing about doing that is it's so country indiscriminate. It's, like, to lean into the Andes much, like, to make an album that's really Caribbean. Let's say it's Chilean, it's Colombian, it's Argentine. It's all of these things at the same time. They themselves are from Colombia. They're twins from Colombia. But they really represent so much. So I want to play you another track, Felix. It's called Liberalo.
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Felix Contreras
There's a lot to be said about siblings who harmonize, let alone twins, whether
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Ana Maria Sayer
with voices or instruments, there's just always this unspoken. It always makes me think, Felix, back to our Hermanos Gutierrez interview, actually, which maybe I don't think they're even twins. They're brothers. But the point is, is that there's this, like, really powerful unspoken blending. I think that very naturally happens between siblings. And then even Another level with Twins, where it's. It's this connection that you just kind of can tap into, and it elevates the music. To me, this specifically, I brought this track in because they brought in Colombian singer La Muchacha. I'm obsessed with everything she does. I saw her perform, Felix, actually, last year. Just her and her guitar. The way she uses that guitar and that voice, it's like you feel like you're watching a full band. And it's just her because it's so. She's so versatile with it. And so to bring her into this duo as well is really exciting. The idea behind this record, obviously, to explore magical dualism and all of this kind of like, surreal, magical, Andean whatever. But they also brought in some Caribbean sounds. The idea was to explore motherhood, and you can hear a little bit of that in this track too. But I'm just forever fans of them, honestly.
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Felix Contreras
I'm looking at the list of songs, and I see that they did a track with a guy who calls himself Chancha Villa Sercuito, and he's one of the very first artists from Argentina that we brought in to. To do a tiny Desk, actually. And then also to play on the podcast. Can't wait to hear the rest of this record.
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Ana Maria Sayer
I knew you'd love it. That was a couple of songs from the new Las Anez album, Dualismo Magico.
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Felix Contreras
Okay. Speaking of dualismos.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Okay. This is such a cheat, Felix, what you're about to do.
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Felix Contreras
You know what I'm gonna play.
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Ana Maria Sayer
I know. I saw this, and I was like, this is. We were gonna have to fight to the death to play this record when it comes out in July. And you're cheating and playing the single.
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Felix Contreras
I'm playing Single. This is a group called Elado Tropical, and it is a collaboration between two of my favorites, two. All Latino favorites. Two of your favorites, Ana Elado Negro and Reina Tropical. The track is called Tocando. Just let yourself fall into the midst of the magic that they create. Check it out. So that is a really big tease on our part because, I mean, when Elado Negro comes in on his vocals, man, it just. You can hear the. The magic of all that. And we're going to get to that in a second. But I just. We got to point out that, you know, for those people who don't know, Elado Negro is a guy named Roberto Carlos Lang. He first started making music as elado Negro in 2006. I found his record Canto Lechusa in 2011. It was like one of the first artists we really featured on All Latino. In fact, he did a tiny desk way back in 2017. I'm a huge fan of his, what I call the atmospheric dreamscapes. It just sort of floats. And when I read about this collaboration, in fact, Fabi told me about it a while back, and, oh, my God, I couldn't wait because it's just. It just. It makes sense. It's so. It's so perfect. Fabi Reyna is Reyna Tropical. She's been making music since 2016 with her musical partner Sumo Hair, who Unfortunately passed in 2022. And she's still moving this music forward. Very much inspired by Mexican folk. This combination, man, like, you can hear it just floating. It's just such a great. A great idea. Okay, okay.
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Ana Maria Sayer
I think you put it super well, Felix, when you think independently of both of these artists as people who world build, and not only world build, but world build in this very kind of, like, spiritual, sometimes, especially on the Fabi side, more psychedelic sense. I mean, it's really like two people who are really brilliant and capable at, like, invoking a lot and very simple sound. Like neither of them have, you know, Obviously, Reina Tropical is a project that is a lot. Based a lot in Fabi's guitar, because that's what she does, but was also based a lot in Sumo's beats. And they kind of brought a lot of exploration of, like, the Afro Mexican identity and a lot of these different things and the spirituality behind all of that, but still in a simplistic way. When I think of Roberto and I think of his project Le Negro, I think of the most soft, light, touch, beauty. Like, he uses these simple elements and just creates the most magical landscapes. It's like, literally existing in his brain, which is like the most beautiful place to ever exist or live ever, because it's El Adonegro. So to bring these two together, I mean, I've been hearing about this collaboration for a long time now, since its inception, and it was exactly what I hoped it would be. And we can't show everyone the album yet, but it's also exactly what I hoped it would be.
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Felix Contreras
This album is a match made in sonic heaven, man.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Literally for generations.
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Felix Contreras
The album is going to be called El Ado Tropical. It comes out in July. This track is called Tocando.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Okay, Fi. The next thing I have is another one of my weird dudes that I found. I don't know how else to describe it.
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Felix Contreras
Weird dudes.
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Ana Maria Sayer
This is Mexican artist Estez Garcia. I want to play you a track called South Kids,
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Felix Contreras
Huh? Microphone check, huh? This is. Sounds coy. Come op. It's your boy Estelle.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Felix. This is his second album. It's called 10 Vio Mensajes. I don't even know what I would call this record. It's like a hip hop based thing. But he also does some reggaeton, R and B, funk. It's really one of the more all over the place records that I've heard in a while. And I say that saying that I bring in all kinds of like records that have influences in genre bending and whatever, all the time. But this one truly is eclectic in a very kind of like not organized way I would say. Like, I really wouldn't say it's organized and yet I think it really works. He just has this kind of natural flow to him. Play another track off the album. It's called Okupa.
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Felix Contreras
Again. Man, where do you even put that? And that's the, that's the beauty of all this stuff, Anna, is that you don't need to put it anywhere. It doesn't belong in. In a slot in the record store. It's like that starts out slow little jazz ride symbol thing, you know, it's just totally.
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Ana Maria Sayer
And, and, and this one, you know, leans a little bit more, I would say like American R and B to. In sound for sure, which I'm hearing more and more a lot from Mexican artists. And I'll talk about this in a bit too. Like the influence of American sound in, in a lot of the music made in Mexico can be like a little bit debilitating at times. But I'm hearing like elements of it being incorporated in really fascinating ways. I mean, I'm saying this all the time, that Latin America right now has some of the most like, innovation to an extent that is really a lot more exciting to me than what I'm hearing out of the US and this artist in particular, I mean you look at his top listeners and it's like Bogota, Mexico City, Santiago, Chile, Lima, Peru, Medellin. Like truly quote pan Latin, but without trying to be like. It's not that the sound is created to be a pan Latin sound, it's just pan Latin received, it's enjoyed by a lot of people in a lot of different parts of Latin America.
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Felix Contreras
And when you say that he's creating a new way to express himself. You know, what's curious is that while on vacation I was in Seattle and I found this really cool little pop up vinyl store at a place where we're having lunch and I saw Cafe Tacuba's album, second album, re for sale. And you know, I love that record. And when I got home and I put it on again, it's this, it's, it's very similar. Like what, 25 years later, like they were creating, they were redefining Mexican music when this record came out in the late 90s. Just incredible stuff. That's what a lot of this music that we listen to, when you bring in, it's the same thing. Like you're creating something completely new out of whole cloth, out of whatever was there before. It's all mashed up together. It's amazing.
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Ana Maria Sayer
That was a couple of songs off of the new Estes Garcia album, 10 Vio Mensajes.
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Felix Contreras
It's time for a break. Look.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Does it say break on your watch?
- [14:47]
Felix Contreras
Yes, it does. We'll be right back.
- [14:51]
NPR Sponsor Announcer
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- [16:11]
Felix Contreras
Okay, we're back. And while we were talking about the newer artists that are doing amazing things, I'm going to feature what's known as a legacy artist. Actually, they're pioneers. Okay. Iconic pioneers from Spain, the group the Gypsy Kings. They have a new record coming out in the end of May. This is a track called Historia. Check it out and then we'll talk about it. Saul, compassion. Alama. Oh, katari.
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Ana Maria Sayer
The Gypsy Kings.
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Felix Contreras
Right? Okay. We play a lot of music from Spain all these contemporary musicians who are doing very creative things, exploring the traditions of flamenco. But flamenco, for the longest time was just a standalone for purists. Just like these hardcore fans. Gypsy Kings in the late 1980s just blew that up. They brought their thing, which is specifically Catalan rumba, flamenco. It's a very, very specific part of Spain. They brought it into the pop world. Ana, this was before you were born, man. They blew up. I can't even begin to tell you how. What it was like to live through that experience of having these guys, all of a sudden, people who don't even speak Spanish, people who are, like, not part of the tradition, all of a sudden. They were huge fans of flamenco and of what they were doing. Millions of albums, world tours, and it was based on, in particular, this song right here. Check it out. This is their hit, Bambo. You know, they got a lot of pushback from the purists back then, but looking back, was the right place, the right time with the sound that's kind of familiar. And then people wanted to hear more. And what they did is they very smartly, they matched up this sound, this thing, right? And then, like pop music that people in this country would be familiar with. They had a song called Volade, which was a very popular song from 1958. That was one of their hits. But one of the ones I really, really liked, that it just blew me away, was their song A Me Manera, which was a cover of a song made popular by Frank Sinatra. Here's the Frank Sinatra version. And then you hear their version. Check it out. And now the end is near and so I face the final Cousin, my
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Ana Maria Sayer
friend I'll say it clear I'll state
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Felix Contreras
my case of which I'm certain I've
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Ana Maria Sayer
lived a life that's full I traveled
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Felix Contreras
each and every highway and more, much more than this I did it my way. I always thought that was a brilliant move on their part to combine those two. Having talked about all that history of Gypsy King, their new record is really good, man. And, you know, when you've been a band like that since 1989 or so, like, how do you keep things fresh? We talk about this all the time. And I think they really did a good job of not straying too far away from what they do, but then adding some new elements. We heard some keyboards. We heard some other stuff. There's one that has a little bit of a reggae feel to it. I don't know if it will have the same commercial impact that they've had. In the past, but it's definitely an artistic statement of, like, this is who we are now, and this is what we do.
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Ana Maria Sayer
I do want to go back and break down that term used because it's very specific. Catalan rumba, flamenco. For anyone who doesn't know, because we've talked, I think, a lot more actually, about, like, the origins of flamenco and who has a right to play. I think especially because of Rosalia, honestly, it's come up a lot in, like, more larger pop conversations in a way that I don't think it necessarily would have if it weren't for her and using that sound so predominantly in her music. But flamenco, not native to Catalunya, Rumba also being something distinct. I mean, what is that term for people who don't know, like, what varietal flamenco is that?
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Felix Contreras
I think that the percussion strumming, like, all of the. A lot of the flamenco has that percussive strumming, but it's counted in different ways. Bulerias, like, in three, it's in six, almost, right? It's got a different feel. But that thing that makes people dance that don't know how to dance flamenco and just gonna dance anyway, that was their secret sauce. That's what made it.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Right.
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Felix Contreras
That's the thing that got everybody involved. And it isn't. It is derivative of the tradition. And they never promised that they were tradition. They never said that we're purists. This is what we're doing. They just used that and used it very, very effectively.
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Ana Maria Sayer
I mean, but it is important to make that distinction, right? Because that is like a closer relationship to pop as well as, like, an undeniable, unavoidable danceability. I mean, that's what makes a lot of these genres cross into, like you said, a mainstream so wide that even people who knew nothing about Spanish language music were dancing it. That's what's happened in the present, right, with reggaeton or certain genres, that it's like, this is just undeniably, I cannot be a human being and not dance this. That's what they did.
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Felix Contreras
And look at Super Bowl. I mean, look how many people are like, oh, my God, who is this guy? Listen to that music. It's all Afro Caribbean music, you know? So, yeah, that's the thing, man. Whether it's a Bad Bunny show, a Grateful Dead show, a flamenco shows, like, you get up and dance, all of a sudden you're a community. Yeah, throw in the dead. But then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, you're in a community 100%. The name of the track is Historia from the Gypsy Kings. Their album Historia is coming out in the end of May. Okay. That was our deep dive for the week.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Okay, well, I have another kind of deep dive.
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Felix Contreras
Okay.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Okay. So this one's kind of random, but it got me thinking this week because. Well, very importantly, because Julieta Venegas released her 11th studio album, which is called simply Nortegna. The idea of it is to literally explore her nortena roots in Tijuana, her childhood stories about it. Sonically, it's very much an homage to not only Tijuana, but the region in general. So I wanted to play you a little bit of this track. It's called La Linea. So I specifically brought in this track off the record because it's also, as you can see, featuring Yaritza Isuencia, which is like, whole other side of the spectrum. But when you think right about what the border of the U.S. mexico is, to me, an artist like Yaritza Isoc, even though they're from Washington state, from a family that's from. They are to me, like a very. Like, all of that community in the US Is very much a grand extension to me of the border. Like, in a lot of ways, this. This biculturalism that we talk about that is that the Mexican American experience in a different way, is the Norteno experience. And so to me, to have them on this track is like, oh, it all kind of fits in a way. And of course, that beautiful voice and everything. But then what it really got me thinking about, Felix is like, what is the biculturalism of the Norteno? Because obviously Julieta Venega is doing this is perfectly fit in with this whole thing that we keep talking about of, like, the return to Roots, the kind of homage to where you're from, to the Origins. Because very much sonically, that's what this is. But it really opens the question of, like, what that is in the north. And so a couple weeks back, I had gone to the listening of the debut album of this really sweet singer from Chihuahua. Her name is Be Puntito. And I want to play you a little bit of this song off of her album. It's called.
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Felix Contreras
Sa.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Now, these songs may feel like they're completely unrelated, which they're not related, right? Like, sonically, one from the other. But when I heard this song from her, I started to think, like, wow, this song really feels to me like it came from someone who grew up listening to, like, a Taylor Swift's White Horse, like A very kind of, like, early 2000s country pop, which obviously has its whole extended roots in, like, Americana from the United States. And I would started to think about this, and I was like, there's not really any difference for someone from the north. And we talk about Chihuahua a lot, especially, I think, on the show, because you have, like, a Kevin Carl and you have a Ed Maverick who do kind of almost like these more indie or country American stylings, but that feel equally as honest or equally as authentic to where they're from. And that's really what being from the north of Mexico is. It's like an actual authentic bicultural existence, which I. I referenced this earlier, Felix. This idea that, like, in Mexico, one of the greatest impediments sometimes, and I've talked about this a lot with people, is, like, the proximity to United States, right. Because there's this, like, desire to recreate or to look towards some of the styles or the popular things in the US but when you look at the north, it's like, it's so proximate that it's just. You can play with whatever you want, because both are equally accurate when you do it right. I think it sounds really, really beautiful and authentic. And there's this one other song on the album called Despues that really struck me in this listening that I think does that really perfectly. Esports. All of the lyrical texture of the most desperate heartbreak songs. And I don't know if you heard something. Maybe I'm tripping, Felix, but. Right.
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Felix Contreras
I did hear that.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Okay.
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Felix Contreras
A reference to Guanga. You know, it's like, oh, my gosh. Like, where do you even start? Where do you stop? I mean, I used to teach a class at Fresno State about the music of Mexico and the Southwest, and it was all about everything that we're talking about. And we got really into it for a whole semester because there's so many layers. And this was back in the 90s when the musical output was so much different than what's going on right now. And I think of immediately of Damaris Bojor, the other singer from northern Mexico that we like. It's the same thing. It's like this interaction where one ends and the other begins. You can't even tell.
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Ana Maria Sayer
It's so honest. Like, both of these albums are explorations of where you're from, of what you grew up listening to, and in the same region, from the same place, but just this kind of, like, very specific place. It's like. It's a little bit like, if you look at Miami as what it is. And it's this very specific kind of place that's this mix of all these things that is really this region as well.
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Felix Contreras
And to bring it back to Juliette Venegas, she's been doing that from the beginning. Even when she started in the punk band Tijuana, no way back when. And you know, playing her accordion, she stood out. She's a female accordion player. Like she's always done that and it just gets more refined. I think this record is like her high watermark. This is the part where she expresses that biculturalism in a really profound way.
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Ana Maria Sayer
And if you listen to the record, feel like she doesn't abandon the rock at all. Like it's there, it's present, but it's just. It's kind of like been put a little bit to the side so she can really let the nortegna of it all shine, whatever that means, as it can be defined in so many different ways. It's really fascinating. That was a couple of songs off of the Bi Puntito album, Me de Amiedo Ser Feliz and the Juliette Venegas record that's called Nortena.
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Felix Contreras
Okay, I'm going to close it out with two of our favorite vocalists from Portugal. We're going to come jump across the ocean.
- [33:12]
Ana Maria Sayer
I know, I saw that and I was like, you're stealing all my freaking.
- [33:16]
Felix Contreras
You introduced me to these artists and
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Ana Maria Sayer
I do steal them.
- [33:19]
Felix Contreras
Well, this one, I don't know, it just somehow this single popped up. These are the vocalists, Mauro and Ana Maura. They have a new track. It's a single, it's called Hera de Acuario and also Des o Sol Nitra. I'm butchering the Portuguese.
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Ana Maria Sayer
It gives me so much joy to listen to. You have to say Portuguese on this show because I feel like it's always me.
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Felix Contreras
We gotta take a quick lesson. Two of our favorite vocalists. Interesting mix of generations and a fascinating choice of songs. Check it out, because there's history behind the COVID We've played both artists on the show before. And for those that don't know, Matto's a kind of a pop vocalist. She went to Berkeley School of Music. She lived in LA for a while. But her music is a mix of a lot of different things. And I think it's safe to say she leans more in the pop world. Ana Maura is like pretty much a straight ahead fado singer from Portugal, like the Portuguese blues they call it. And also mixed in with a little bit of her Angola heritage. This song is from 1969 by a group called the Fifth Dimension. And it came from a controversial play back then, a play called Hair from the late 1960s. And it's the epitome of when mainstream culture tries to be hip and cool, right? It never changes. It sort of comes out in this really kind of weird way. At the time, they sort of were discounted like the Fifth Dimension. They're. They're neither black because they're all African American musicians, not black music. It's like it's in between. But listening back, they get the last word, man, because this song is really well produced. Check it out. This is the original Age of aquarius from the fifth dimension from 1969, when the moon is in the seven. This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Age of Aquarius.
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Felix Contreras
It's definitely a timepiece, right? And. And I got a chance to do a really deep dive on. On this, the Fifth Dimension music. It's so well crafted. I don't think that they got the props that they should have been given for the music, but it's a perfect introduction to this great, great single from Mauro and Ana Maura. The track is called Era de Acuario and Des o solar Netrad. Sorry for butchering that.
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Ana Maria Sayer
Do that ten more times.
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Felix Contreras
You have been listening to alt latino from npr music. Our audio editor is noah caldwell.
- [37:12]
Ana Maria Sayer
The executive producer of npr music is
- [37:14]
Felix Contreras
soraya muhammad, and executive director is sonalimeta. I'm felix contreras.
- [37:19]
Ana Maria Sayer
And I'm ana maria serena.
- [37:21]
Felix Contreras
Thank you for listening.
- [37:21]
Ana Maria Sayer
Thanks for listening.
- [37:42]
Joanna Strober
This message comes from Midi Health CEO Joanna Strober shares the personal experience that led her to start a virtual care platform for women in perimenopause and menopause. I was having anxiety. I had gained weight. I wasn't sleeping. And my primary care doctor never once said that perhaps I was in perimenopause and that all these things could be related to my hormones. So I had a really tough time for quite a while. And a friend recommended that I try a concierge doctor. She prescribed hormones for me, a combination of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. And I felt very relieved that I had this care. And I also had a lot of sadness that I had spent such a long period of time going through this and not getting the right care. And so essentially, what we really want to do at MITI is democratize access to this type of care. MITI Health committed to helping women in midlife with perimenopause and menopause care accessible via telehealth visits@joinmidi.com this message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's flexpath Learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at Capella. Edu.
- [38:57]
Felix Contreras
New shows, new music, new movies. Keeping up with pop culture sometimes feels like a full time job. Thankfully, over at Pop Culture Happy Hour, it's literally our job. We break down what's actually worth watching, listening to, and pretending you already knew about. So the next time someone says, did you see that? You can say, yeah, obviously. Obviously. Follow NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour wherever you get your podcasts.