Alt.Latino's best new music round-up: Residente, La Yegros and El Cuarteto de Nos
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FELIX CONTRERAS, HOST:
From NPR Music, this is ALT.LATINO. I'm Felix Contreras.
ANAMARIA SAYRE, HOST:
And I'm Anamaria Sayre. Let the chisme begin.
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CONTRERAS: It was really cool to see a lot of ALT.LATINO favorites win Grammys and the recent Grammy Award show - down ballot, as I like to say.
SAYRE: You know, Felix, I have to say, I was sitting there feeling all emotional. And I was, like, thinking about the Grammys wins. And I was like, wow, in what world would this have happened previously? Like, Latin music has always existed in so many spaces in this country. But at the Grammys and the magnitude, with, like, Peso Pluma taking photos with Jay-Z, like, wow, it's pretty amazing.
CONTRERAS: You know, the highlight for me was seeing Gaby Moreno win Latin pop album - a Grammy. That was a big deal for us here at ALT.LATINO.
SAYRE: That was a huge deal. I also saw her the night before. I told you about this show at the Troubadour.
CONTRERAS: Yeah.
SAYRE: The Paul Simon tribute show - it's a big tribute show that the Americana Festival puts on every year. There were multiple Latin acts, multiple ALT.LATINO favorites. We had Gaby Moreno, Silvana Estrada, Natalia Lafourcade. And, wow, to hear them sing Paul Simon songs - I mean, I'm pretty sure most of the people in the room did not know who they were, Silvana in particular. She walked on that stage. No one knew who she was, and by the end of her performance, everyone was talking about it - like, I kid you not, Felix - turning to each other, like, who was that? What was that? She brought the house down.
CONTRERAS: 'Cause that's what we do. We introduce new music, new names, like we're going to do this week.
SAYRE: You're right, Felix. We have a very special treat for the people. And that is another new music show. (Trilling).
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CONTRERAS: Yeah. That was impressive.
SAYRE: Thanks, Felix.
CONTRERAS: I'm going to start things off with rock - Southern Cone rock from Montevideo, Uruguay. This is a band called El Cuarteto de Nos. They've been around since 1980. This song is called "Chivo Expiatorio." Check it out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHIVO EXPIATORIO (EN VIVO)")
EL CUARTETO DE NOS: (Singing) Caminando iba Pandora. Caminando por la calle sola. Sola con su caja ignora. Qué será, qué será, qué será lo que atesora.
CONTRERAS: That sound is a reminder of how popular rock is in countries like Uruguay and, in particular, Argentina, and more so than in Mexico or the Caribbean, which has their own approach to rock. Rock was a big deal down there, going back to the late '60s through the '70s. That really became an incubator of, like, a lot of great, phenomenal bands and musicians in the '70s. And it went global in the '80s and the '90s.
This band is from the 1980s, and this track is a live version of a track that they released in 2022. They recorded three live shows, in Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. And they're rereleasing these things because it's really a celebration. When you listen to the record, these songs, there's a celebration of the connection to their fans and also a celebration of rock in that part of the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHIVO EXPIATORIO (EN VIVO)")
EL CUARTETO DE NOS: (Singing) Siempre alguien cargará la culpa. Siempre alguien cargará la culpa, con todo el peso, todo el peso, ¡sí!
SAYRE: I love, Felix - you know, I usually don't talk visuals, but I did love how the music video for this song, it's such a, like, glorification, remembrance, nostalgia for that era - right? - of like, the rockero, like, coming and the adoring fans screaming, and they're, like, playing the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City. And they're just - there's something really, I don't know, like, kind of exciting about just that rockero energy selling out a stadium, playing to adoring fans. And they really embody that kind of like rocker swagger. Like, I don't know how else to describe it but that.
They just have that kind of like old-school energy. And we see it, like, in bands that are younger. Like we see it kind of re-emerging. I think there's more of that nostalgia for the rockero era coming back now, and people want to be a little more punk, a little more rock.
CONTRERAS: If you watch the documentary called "Rompan Todo" on Netflix, it is the history of basically Latin alternative or rock en español, and you really get an idea of what was at stake to be a rock musician in Argentina during the dictatorship and coming out of that. So this rock, this really powerful rock sound, it was very similar to what happened in Spain after Franco with the punk scene that exploded there. All this angst, all this really pent-up emotion just comes exploding out. And this is part of that tradition.
(CHEERING)
CONTRERAS: Great band, El Cuarteto de Nos - don't miss it. OK, Ana, what do you got?
SAYRE: Don't miss it.
CONTRERAS: Don't miss it.
SAYRE: Honestly, anything you tell me not to miss musically, Felix, I take that extremely seriously.
CONTRERAS: OK.
SAYRE: (Laughter) Maybe just in life in general, but music especially. OK, well, I have something - I forgot to preface when we started this show, I brought some really good music today. Can I just say - like, not to pat myself on the back or, yes, to pat myself on the back. Like, I'm so excited about all three of these songs. Roberto Lange, the artist known as Helado Negro - he just came out with a new record. It's called "Phasor." And it's just everything that we love from him, would expect from him and more. I do really believe that, as an artist, he's constantly leveling up. This song in particular that I brought today, he released as a single before the record came out. It's called "Best For You And Me." He does generally do a mix of English and Spanish. This is one of the English tracks on the record. And I just loved everything about it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEST FOR YOU AND ME")
HELADO NEGRO: (Singing) Quiet light. Pushing too far. It's all gone. Mom's asleep. Dad's not home. It's what's wrong. And I'll go outside...
SAYRE: Oh, everything about this - I'm just so stunned and consistently amazed by what a master this man is of both musicianship and vibes. And our editor, Hazel Cills, told me that vibes was not a specific enough descriptor, but I don't - I cannot better describe Helado Negro than just the most pristine, perfect, magical vibes. Like, he is a curator of experience. He's very much one of those visual artists where I think everything that he does, he creates imagery. He creates soundscapes. And the first time I heard this song, I was literally standing at the top of a mountain, Felix, staring at the ocean. And that is exactly what this song feels like to me. But I think you could map any - you could paint any scene onto this. It's both - it's ethereal. It's raw. It's authentic to him. It's, like, kind of got this sophisticated but sparse production. The sweet vocals that he sprinkles in. It's kind of one of his movier (ph) and groovier songs off the record. It has a little bit of like a samba energy under it, but it still holds all of that perfect Helado Negro emotion.
CONTRERAS: I get that top-of-mountain feel. I remember hearing him in the earliest days of ALT.LATINO and hearing that sound. And the same thing - it's like, wow, what a vision. What a sound.
SAYRE: And you know what amazes me, Felix, is, like - there's the instrumentation, like, the, the melody, the sound - it already holds so much. And then he layers - like, he doesn't even have to - but then he layers these beautiful lyrics on there. Like, that line where he says, Mom's asleep. Dad's not home. It's what's wrong. And I'll go outside, looking at the moon way too long. Like, that's so evocative. And it takes everyone back. He's both nostalgic - he takes you back to places, but then also is so present and so modern and contemporary in his sound. It's magic to me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEST FOR YOU AND ME")
HELADO NEGRO: (Singing) ...Is all wrong.
CONTRERAS: If you want to see that magic in action, don't forget he did do a Tiny Desk. Look in our archive. He's in there.
(SOUNDBITE OF LA YEGROS SONG, "BODAS DE PLUMAS")
CONTRERAS: OK, I'm going to keep things in a mellow mood. We're going to hear the first track from the new album from La Yegros, who is Mariana Yegros. It's hard to believe she's been on the scene for over 10 years. She's another early ALT.LATINO favorite. This is a track called "Bodas De Plumas" from an album called "Haz," H-A-Z.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BODAS DE PLUMAS")
LA YEGROS: (Singing) Creo en un Dios salvaje y en mi hermano perro, mi hermano perro, esta canción no vale.
CONTRERAS: It's been a while since she's put out a record. For people who don't know about La Yegros, let me give you a little bit of background on her. She's known as the queen of nu cumbia - that's spelled N-U. She's from Argentina. She really leaned into the folklore of the region again of that Southern Cone and the musical world of her parents, because they're from a remote area of Argentina, along the borders of Brazil and Paraguay. And there is a completely amazing sound pastiche of Indigenous music, polka, Andean folklore, Colombian cumbia.
SAYRE: And the beauty of Mariana Yegros' influences doesn't stop there, because she then herself went and spent time exploring India and Africa, and states that a lot of her music was inspired from those experiences. So you're talking about Indigenous inspiration. Her father listened to a lot of chamamé, which is Indigenous to the north of Argentina, her mom listening to cumbia, then she goes, does her own exploration - I mean, she really is one of those, like, musicians of the world - right? - which creates an entirely different sound.
CONTRERAS: And I think we have to note that she has a two-decadeslong collaboration with a guy named Gaby Kerpel, who is an Argentine producer-songwriter-performer known for his long association with Gustavo Santaolalla. And what he's done on this track is stripped back everything but this stringed instrument and the wind ensemble. And that's what we're seeing more and more of - artists known for one thing, and breaking away and experimenting with winds and strings, like we recently saw on Ivy Queen's Tiny Desk. And in this case, I think it really nails her sound. I can't wait to hear the rest of the record.
SAYRE: Wow, you're feeling very Southern Cone today, Felix (laughter).
CONTRERAS: For now. For now. OK. We're listening to new music, Ana. What do you have next?
SAYRE: OK. So I have another beautiful, cinematic, gorgeous song to bring - also, very simple on the production end, but so beautiful. It's "If A Tree Falls In Love With A River" off of Lau Noah's new album that came out in January called "A Dos."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IF A TREE FALLS IN LOVE WITH A RIVER")
LAU NOAH: (Singing) If a tree falls in love with a river 'cause the sun makes her golden and bright, can the tree understand and forgive her for the darkness she carries at night, for the darkness she carries at night?
SAYRE: I'm like, take a deep breath, Felix. Everything about this - this song, her work - it's poetry to me. Like, melodically it's poetry. The lyricism is poetry. I swear, I feel like she is, like, a bruja with simplicity - like just single guitar, vocal, harmony. She says about this entire record that she made that it's a bridge between symphony and song. And I think there's so much truth to that. I mean, it's evocative. This song in particular - it's this absolutely gut-wrenching love story about a tree and a river, and it makes you want to cry over the lost love of the tree and the river.
And she has these beautiful lyrics where she says, if a tree falls in love with a river 'cause the sun makes her golden and bright, can the tree understand and forgive her for the darkness she carries at night? I mean Silvana Estrada, she put on her story, when this record came out, something along the lines of basically, she's lucky to exist in the same time frame as Lau. And that is like - when you can realize that, when, you know, contemporaries can say that about each other, there's magic to her.
CONTRERAS: I may be off base, and people may argue with me, but to me, this reminds me of Lhasa de Sela, the American Canadian musician who was raised in Mexico and recorded in English, French and Spanish. Look her up. Just like its - it has the same very deep, evocative, emotional content. And her music in general - and I've listened to it, but this one in particular really strikes home for me on that.
SAYRE: It's interesting that you say that because she is a Catalan singer, first and foremost. So she's Spanish, raised on Catalan. So that, obviously, is a language that is this mix of Spanish and French and Italian elements. So I'm curious if there's some influence in terms of linguistically why, you know, she sounds the way that she sounds. But this second album that she released came out on January 12 - with a whole list of really interesting, beautiful collaborators, Sílvia Pérez Cruz being one of them, Gaby Moreno, Jorge Drexler.
CONTRERAS: OK, stop. That just...
SAYRE: Yeah. No, I know. No.
CONTRERAS: Seriously...
SAYRE: It's like - it's all the amazing people just working together, and I can't even imagine what it was like in the studio. And this one in particular is really interesting 'cause she worked with Jacob Collier, which obviously - not a Latin artist, but has been dabbling in the Latin space a lot. He just released a single with the huge Colombian singer Camilo. He's worked a lot with Portuguese singer Maro, and it's a weird pairing that makes so much sense in many ways because, obviously, she is such a musician's musician. She's a master of composition, and I think the two of them together, especially with the simplicity, with the harmonies, it came out really beautiful.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IF A TREE FALLS IN LOVE WITH A RIVER")
NOAH: (Singing) To be with her. And she'd never give up on the sea.
LAU NOAH AND JACOB COLLIER: (Singing) She would never give up on the sea.
CONTRERAS: We'll be back with new music right after this.
SAYRE: And we're back with all of our favorite new music.
CONTRERAS: OK. We're going to change the tempo a little bit. Cuban vocalist Daymé Arocena has a great new record.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A FUEGO LENTO")
DAYMÉ AROCENA: (Singing) Me enamoras con tu luz…
CONTRERAS: This is a track called "A Fuego Lento" and it features the Dominican singer Vicente García.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A FUEGO LENTO")
AROCENA: (Singing) Provocando un descontrol, desnudando esta pasión. Me seduce imaginar el vapor de tu humedad.
CONTRERAS: We've been a fan of Daymé Arocena from when she first appeared on these jazz albums. You can hear how much of a transition this is for her. I've been a fan of her Celia-Cruz-meets-Aretha vocal style for a very, very long time. But this one, there's so much transition. She left Cuba. She resettled in Puerto Rico. And as you can hear on this track, she's added a lot more contemporary elements to the album, to her sound.
And most importantly, this is produced by Eduardo Cabra, who goes by Cabra, who was one half of Calle 13. He's the producer side. And the sound bed that he always puts on under his artists, it's just immaculate and always matches exactly the artist. He's a master at bringing out the artist's vision sonically, musically, and this is a perfect example of it. This is just - it stunned me the first time I heard it.
SAYRE: I think stunned is exactly the right word for it. I mean, it's - to hear stylistically the way that voice - it's so - I don't know - it's so - kind of like hits you straight in the chest. And then to hear it laid over this type of sound, like this, almost, like, R&B, kind of really sweet - you can tell she had a vision and that she executed so well on it.
You know, Felix, you and I literally argued over who would get to bring this song in, and I told her that. I ran into her at the Grammys recently, and I told her. I was like, we are such a massive fan of what you've done creatively with this record. And it just - she is such a force. She's a creative force. Not only is she so vocally gifted, but she has the creative vision to do amazing things, and I just loved hearing her transform in this way.
CONTRERAS: That's so funny you ran into her.
SAYRE: (Laughter) I know. And Cabra - they were there together. I know you're really jealous.
CONTRERAS: I saw her a couple summers ago here in D.C., performing right when they made the deal to go ahead and produce the record together.
SAYRE: Oh, my God.
CONTRERAS: It just - I think back to the excitement in her face, and now hear the record, and I can see why. Everything worked out perfectly. The album is called "Alkemi" and again, it's Daymé Arocena. This track features Vicente Garcia from the Dominican Republic, another Cabra protege. And we're proud to say that you can see both Daymé and Vicente Garcia in our Tiny Desk archive. Go check them out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A FUEGO LENTO")
DAYMÉ AROCENA AND VICENTE GARCIA: A fuego lento, tu amor me está quemando. Volver a amarnos, a fuego lento, tú y yo, a fuego lento.
CONTRERAS: OK. Speaking of Calle 13...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RON EN EL PISO")
RESIDENTE: (Vocalizing).
SAYRE: I'm fist pumping. I'm so excited. OK (laughter) so what a fabulous transition because I brought in the other half of Calle 13 this week. I have a single from the amazing, incredible, talented Puerto Rican rapper Residente, René. This is his song "Ron En El Piso."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RON EN EL PISO")
RESIDENTE: (Rapping) El artista del momento, mi disco en toa' las tienda'. No es que me ofenda, pero me siento viejo cuando los chamaquito' ahora me dicen "Leyenda." Que Dios los reprenda. Estoy igual de joven, pero con meno' fecha' en la agenda. No tengo lancha, ni avione', ni prenda', pero tengo la esperanza de que el próximo punchline te sorprenda. Ya nada es como ante'.
SAYRE: So Felix, I was hesitant to bring this one in because we have talked about Residente a lot on this show. You remember when we discovered that 4% of all ALT.LATINO episodes (laughter) have included Residente.
CONTRERAS: That's, you know - we have to say this because when we started the show, they were such a powerful juggernaut. They were - they put out a new record like almost every year. So, you know, we had to talk about it.
SAYRE: Absolutely. Have been a force in the Latin music - in the alternative Latin music space for a long time. And that's what's really beautiful about this release from Residente because this is a single that's coming off of a new album that's about to be released from him. We haven't heard a new album from him in a minute.
CONTRERAS: And you know what strikes me, too, is that he is using the same, like, skill that he has for - with being direct with his language. That - for example, on a song like "Latinoamérica," right? Everybody knows that song. It's so intensely powerful. But now he's directing it inward.
SAYRE: And we know, personally, like, he and his brother don't work together anymore. He even talks about Calle 13 in this song. He says, “Acostado al lado de este whisky caramelizado, con el corazón tieso, una tabla, esperando a ver si el techo me habla, mientra’ amanece, queriendo hacer las paces con mi hermano, a ver si vuelve Calle 13.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RON EN EL PISO")
RESIDENTE: (Rapping) Con el corazón tieso, una tabla, esperando a ver si el techo me habla. Mientras amanece, queriendo hacer las paces con mi hermano. A ver si vuelve Calle 13.
SAYRE: He says he's lying next to this caramelized whiskey with a stiff heart, waiting to see if the ceiling speaks to him as the dawn breaks, wanting to make las paces - like, passes - with his brother to see if Calle 13 will come back.
So he's in this space where he's clearly thinking about the past, thinking about his relationships, thinking about where he's at, and wondering, like, now that he's at this space in his career, he knows he's kind of come off of that peak. He's still making music. He still wants to be creative and relevant. And he says, like, I never wanted this or this. I don't have a boat. I don't have all these things. So he just wants the next punchline to surprise you.
(SOUNDBITE OF RESIDENTE SONG, "RON EN EL PISO")
CONTRERAS: Before we go, we want to tell you about a new offering we have here at NPR. It's called NPR Music+.
SAYRE: NPR Music+ is a new way to support our work and public radio. When you sign up, you can get access to a special feed of this show, ALT.LATINO, where you can listen to all of our episodes sponsor-free.
CONTRERAS: And you also get to listen to our sister show, All Songs Considered, sponsor-free.
SAYRE: Now, nothing is changing about our regular show, but NPR Music+ is just another way to show your support of public media and get some extra perks too.
CONTRERAS: So go sign up. You can find out more at plus.npr.org/nprmusic or search for NPR Music in Apple Podcasts. You have been listening to ALT.LATINO from NPR Music. Our audio producer for this episode is Joaquin Cotler.
SAYRE: Our editor is Hazel Cills, and the woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chung.
CONTRERAS: The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed.
SAYRE: And our jefe in chief is Keith Jenkins, VP of music and visuals.
CONTRERAS: I'm Felix Contreras.
SAYRE: And I'm Anamaria Sayre. Thank you for listening.
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