NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Mon Laferte's captivating coda

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

On this week’s Alt.Latino, Anamaria and I both gush about 'Femme Fatale Vol. 2,' the new album from Chilean-Mexican singer Mon Laferte, who is on one of the more amazing creative streaks I've witnessed in a while. Also, Ana and I sometimes unintentionally align when picking new music for the show, and that took place this week with a couple of Brazilian highlights: I chose an artist who records as MOMO., while Ana brought in music from São Paulo-based artist Tijolo. Also this week, Chicago-based artist Sparklmami and an EP from Texan-Mexican singer Iveth Luna that got me thinking about the world of Spanish-language Christian music. — Felix ContrerasArtists & albums featured in this episode:(01:31) Sparklmami, 'in this body'(06:36) The Animeros, '¡Qué Bárbaro!'(09:51) Mon Laferte, 'Femme Fatale Vol. 2'(16:47) Iveth Luna, 'Making Ways'(21:34) Tijolo, 'Y'(25:37) MOMO., 'Tum Tum Tum'This podcast episode was produced by Noah Caldwell and edited by Otis Hart. Suraya Mohamed is the executive producer of NPR Music.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Okay, Felix. I have something to tell you. Anna, you have many things to tell me. Okay, but the most important urgent thing I need you to know is that I vole. But don't tell my mom, please. Because then she would fly here and kill me. Just so everybody knows, you are in Mexico City, and it's all about football right now, I la Copa.

Eat, sleep, breathe. I can't imagine. Before we get going, Volar, Felix. for those who don't know. Let me give the technical definition. It's when you're in the streets. Okay. And everyone starts chanting,

Seque de volat, she wants to fly. And literally a bunch of people come and pick you up and throw you in the air and you do indeed fly. All right, let's distract you from all the celebration. Calm you down a little before you head on the streets again today. Before I head on the streets, because the party starts at noon every day. From if you are music, this is out Latino.

I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the cheese. I said my last name. Wait, I was supposed to. It's been so long. You've been volando. I was like, my head is volando, Felix.

And my head never came back down. Let the chisemet begin. Besides the chisemet being that next week, I'm dead because my mom definitely heard that I vollo? Let's talk about some new music. So, first song that I have today, I think you're going to like it, Felix. I hope you're going to like it. I don't know. We'll see. It's from the Chicago based artist Sparkle Mommy, and this first track is called No Tevaeis. You're listening to Sparkle Mommy Radio. We're here, anything is possible. Your dreams come alive and your fantasies too.

The mode, even though it's summer and it's the Mundial, to contrast all the energy, when we're not out in the streets, it's time for some, like, smooth cruising music is where I've been at. And Sparkle Mommy is, like, the perfect representation of an artist who does, like, a very place-based thing, right? Like, a lot of her sound is kind of, like, very Chicago-Chicano, like, sounds straight out of Pilsen, but with, like, this really nice jazzy tone to it. She has some tracks on this album that are even like Brazil jazz oriented. She grew up singing in the church, and I think you can hear that in both her vocals and her stylings. I want to play you another track from her, and it's called Kisiera. Oh my mother-sita,

if you could tell sincerely, You've been busy, and I don't know if you had a from D.C. and the tape was rediscovered. And the tape was rediscovered. That sounds very much like the music they played back in 71. I'm not going to lie. Well, and this is what I mean by an album that's grounded in place, because Chicago, Chicano, same with Chicano's in L.A.,

Chicano's in other parts of the country, like there is a very specific musical tone. It's almost sangre. Like, it's almost its own roots. And she, you know, she's from, she was born in Texas, but raised her whole life in Chicago. And what I really love about this record is, like, there's, I mean, I could play you another track that's like pretty Brazilian jazz,

Brazilian funky. Like there are moments that really do depart from from that energy, but this track felt so quintessentially what it means to be Mexican American in Chicago. But with her own spin, like I've heard a lot of, obviously, we've talked a ton about revival soul. That's all over the map right now. It's super popular like what you said, you know, that music from the 70s coming back. But she does something that's very distinctly her own and it makes it feel even more present because it's not just revival. It's actually like a distorted, interpreted, put it through a couple filters be more global, be more, you know, exploring musically, but still have that, what is her, like, Raiz, is soul, which is really fascinating.

It's, man, this is like 70, I can name you four different bands right now, right off the bat, like soul jazz bands, R&B, funk, like jazz stuff, it sounds exactly like it. And it's, and again, it's, as I, some older people that I talk to some of my peers, they're like, oh, they're just recopping. They're revitalizing. They're reaching back. They're re-examining. They're acknowledging these roots that are already there.

And then putting their own spin on it. And this is, oh, my God, it's a perfect example. Sounds exactly like the music of Zapata that we played last week. Man, it's like, I'm there for it. I love this a lot. That was a couple of songs off of the new Sparkle Mommy album in This Body. And that is her debut album, Felix. Plus the name, man.

How could you know? not like somebody sparkling. Okay, so I'm going to start my first track this week with another form of Chicano expression curiously. Again, we didn't coordinate. It just happened this way. This one is from Austin, Texas. This is a band called The Animeros.

They have an album coming out in August. It's called Que Barbarbarro. What Barbaro. Kebarbarro. I'm starting with electric guitar cumbia this week, and I can't. never get enough of it. This track is called Calmita. Check it out.

Ooh. What, arborado. Okay, so I've decided that this is my new dance move. I'm pretending... That is not any different than your old thing, Felix. I'm pretending I'm driving the car while I'm listening to music. See my hands? The music, okay?

Forget my dance moves. Okay. You brought it up, Felix. I don't bring up your dancing because I don't like to touch source subjects. Okay, this band is from Austin, Mario Lopez guitar, Nicola Sanchez on bass, Nick Toso on the drums and percussion. Again, it's like this guitar-driven, like any kind of electric guitar-driven,

Cumbia reaches back to Chicha. Short recap, it's a form of cumbia developed in Peru in the 60s and 70s, developed by working-class communities, and also developing these oil boom towns in the Peruvian and Amazon. And it has it like this timeless groove. And these guys like really dig into that. This is a remake of a 1971 track recorded by a band called a traffic sound.

They were Chicha Pioneers. The whole Chicha thing, it's a movement. It's like an endless source of this joyous music. Slow grooves. You just can't go wrong. And I'm always there for it. This band is called The Animeros. They have an album, a full album coming out in August.

The single is called Camita. Can't wait to hear the rest of the rest. I didn't have any commentary besides you dancing, Felix. Okay, it's my turn. Oh, I'm actually quite excited about this next one. Okay. I was not in plan to bring this song or this album onto the show. I was quite resistant because what it is is it's Molla Ferte, which we love Mon La Ferte.

But it's one of these like part two records earlier last year, Mon La Ferte released an album called Fem Fidelis. this is volume two of that record, which I'm usually not a huge fan of volume two's, part two's, because that feels like it's just going to be the extra stuff. No, Felix, because then I actually listened to it,

and this is the freaking main event. I am like actually, you know, we talked about the whole Fem Fetal thing. It feels like she really expanded here on that idea. I mean, there was like, she was playing, obviously, with a lot of references in history and really, like,

more than a subculture, like the establishing of a certain form of feminism and embracing the feminine and the body and the sexual and all these things. This next addition to me, Felix, is like a complete just flying of that idea. So I'm going to play you part of a song. It's called No Le Regales to Your Correason, and I'm going to skip to a couple parts. I want to start at the beginning, but it's a nine minute, I think, song. So I want to kind of show you how it transitioned. So let's start at the beginning. Ah, your Sueyes

Passed There's There's an opportunity The miracle is only a day at the At this In this

I'm I'm I'm I'm If you I'm I can't I can't

I can't So this first part of the song, which is a lot of the album, is pretty soft. Much softer than the previous or the first part of this album. Like it's a very kind of sweet, softer, more feminine expression from Mon. I'm going to skip a head to about like four minutes, 15 seconds, and you'll see how it starts to shift energetically. So Mon starts to give us like these really nice distorted weird vocals, which she does sometimes with her production. And then if you go to about a minute before the end, you get what is my favorite part of the song.

Really like she takes you through this whole really interesting sony experience from beginning to ends of like her on the really beautiful soft vocals, your soft guitar in the beginning. And then we get like this really gritty distorted like guitar solo. solo and it's to me I mean Morn has always been a shape shifter like especially between different eras but like you get in this one song what is really like now what she does within one

album as she just continues it's like she's reinventing herself and her idea of herself and femininity within even solo songs I mean it doesn't make sense right now to make a nine minute song by any means for anyone but that's what she wanted to do and you kind of get that at different parts of the album I do want to play you

another track because she included St. Vincent on one of these songs, so I kind of just had to include it. It's called While I'll Keep Writing Songs for You. There are clothes lying in my brain reminds of coffee and cigarette. Fire in my narrow. I have some love for you. I feel some fireworks in my belly. There are nights when I hate my I've listened to this whole record like a few times already. What? Yeah, it came out a few weeks ago.

And it's interesting that she calls this Femphotile Part 2 because the other one was very strictly based on like this 50s style of vocal, like very stylized. This is the new sound of a Femphotel, right? It's contemporary with electronics, with the instrumentation and all that stuff. The concept is still there, sort of a tortured spirit, right? It's, you know, an expression of feminism in a different way. But see, that's the genius of mona, like you said, the shape-shifting.

It's like she conceptualizes things so brilliantly. And the way that the whole record flows, like I said, I've listened to this thing walking around. I've listened to it on Metro. I've listened to it driving around. And it just flows so perfectly. It goes through so many different emotions and different textures. Felix, it's super personal. It's like, Morn is so excellent at defining things just so she can break her own definitions of things.

And that to me feels very much like what this record was, both in like the energy of a femme fatale is kind of rebellion against oneself. In a lot of ways, it's rebellion against the structures and the systems and the things that we hold, especially as women within ourselves. And Morn really did that, right? Because she's like, here, I'm going to take a concept and make a concept. album. And then I'm just going to continue on that quote concept, but it's going to be completely different than what I originally established. And it's going to be completely me, which is just as valid, within my own definition and my own concept. The way she has made herself to be so innovative and true as an artist, I'm consistently so impressed by her. Like, she really is one of

the greats. I've said this before, and I don't say it often. Like 20, 30, 50 years in the future, Mon La Ferte is going to be the kind of name that we speak of reference right now of people who were 50 years ago, right? She's going to be that level with her whole body of work. 100%. That was a couple of songs from Mon La Ferte's new album or continuation of an album Fem Faital Part 2. We're going to take a quick break and then we'll be right back with lots more new music.

And we're back. Felix, what do you have to compete with my great last track? I don't know if it's a competition. It's just another foray. It's always a competition. It's another foray into another area of music. I brought in a track by an artist named Yvette Luna. She's from Esquite, Texas, which is just outside of Dallas.

She has a new single called Making Ways or Abriendo Caminos. It's a bilingual track. Let's hear the English part. Check it out. Feeling grateful with the sun in my eyes. of your faithfulness in my life. I looked at my worries and I said goodbye. I'm done with the doubt.

Don't need a question why. Because I got a friend who's with me every time. Every time. You're making... Anna Evith, Luna, is a Christian artist. Okay. And here's where I got this. I got an email from a publicist

pitching this track and this artist. And it reminded me of something I've been thinking about for a long time that idea of contemporary Christian music and specifically in the Latin music space. Now, I will admit that because of my own personal ideas about religious music and religion in general, that part of the music industry I didn't really know anything about.

And I did a little bit of research on it. It's a very, very big part of the recording industry in both English and Spanish. Reports are indicating that there's a large, large growth there and is fueled largely by Gen Z and millennials right now. And Yvette Luna, her grandfather was a minister in Mexico. Her uncles were involved in worship communities here in Texas. She was attending a Baptist college majoring in business

and then had a moment when she said she had a spiritual encounter that led her to a path of musical ministry. And I think that a lot of people don't want to give that part of the industry or those artists, their props, even while at the same time we celebrate things like the power of the African-American church and the influence over people like Aretha and how it's like completely influenced the rest of us.

You know, the Latin side, a lot of reverence for like, Santaria, Lucumi, music, which is also a form of spiritual expression. And it just made me really want to, like, I think I'm going to spend a little bit more time digging into this part of the industry because those lyrics, it's not like right in your face. Like, you listen to me. It's a celebration of her relationship with, you know, what she calls her lord, right?

It just made me listen a lot closer. I just need to know more about it. You know, Felix, I think that we've discussed this a bit before and more in the past, but especially when you talk about Latin America and music from Latin America, like the church, concepts of the church, music, especially from the church, is so fundamental. to the majority, honestly, of the music that we're talking about. I went to the Basilica last weekend in Mexico City, and you know, you're standing there and you're listening to this beautiful choir, beautiful.

And I was with some friends and we're all kind of discussing, like, this is the basis for pretty much all of our musical experience. Like for so many people, you know, Latinos, people in Latin America, like the basis, the fundamental introduction to music is. is for many years the church. And more so, like, that spiritual power, right, that comes from spaces like that, comes from music constructed for that. It pulls on something really deep and really profound. And so I think it actually makes a lot of sense

to pay more attention to what's happening in that world because it's where most of the other stuff comes from. You know, I've been feeling lately listening to a lot of music that it feels quite empty. And this feels, you know, it feels more profound to pull from. from something as like concrete. Right.

The artist is called Yvette Luna. She has an EP and it's basically a couple of different versions of the same song, Making Ways or Abriendo Caminos. I think it's your turn. Of course it's my turn. That means it's about to get good. Okay, so we're going to Brazil. I tried.

I gave you two tracks that were not from Brazil, but here we go. A track from Brazil. This is a song called Atraz do Sentir. This is from Brazilian artist. Tijolo. Like I said, Felix, my era of smooth writing music, and this album is all just really sweet listening. It's funny to me because it feels like it could almost fit into a nice little sweet,

like American indie space. But from Brazil, and everything from Brazil, right, like comes with that texture of the most insane, beautiful, massive legacy of just, like, value. the songwriter and the songwriting and the singer-songwriter. And so I love to hear, you know, that texture fit with what is to me, like on this album specifically a more American styling. I want to play you another song. It's called Gosto de Sol.

I love a simple album right now, Felix. Everyone's trying to bring world peace right now with their records and like literally unite all of the Americas of the world sonically in one track. And this is like very subtle. There are moments, you know, where Tijolo does this. I mean, he has a song on here that almost has like a milonga kind of tone to it. Like there's subtle influences from everywhere, but very small. And mostly it's just sweet to listen to. It's not trying to be too much or do too much.

and I think that's also really lovely to have right now. Agreed. That was a few songs from the new Tijolo album E. Okay. Again, we're the same person. I'm going to finish with the Brazilian track. I'm going to barge in on your passion for contemporary Brazilian music. You can't take my passion for Brazilian music.

I'm so sorry, but that is mine. Well, I'm going to play a track from a new album by the name of Momo. It features a Brazilian music legend, Marcos Valle. This is called Morena. He's been making records for about 20 years. He's been around for a while. I've heard some of his stuff in the past. Even before we started this show,

I remember hearing his name somewhere. And it's a your favorite mashup of Tropicalia, Afrobeat, folk rock, psychedelia, jazz. You're right. And MPB, Musica Popular Brazilian. And Marcos Valle is one of these guys. He's a contemporary of Milton Nacimiento. Like, he's an OG.

He was there just exploring and creating this stuff. And he's had this long prolific career, even now, like collaborating with, you know, younger musicians like Momu. But then also he did a thing with this thing, this collective called Jazz is Dead, these musicians who are like combining jazz with all these different things like Afrobeat from Africa. And they did this really wonderful project with Marcos Vallet. This record is from start to end. Just an amazing collection of stuff. Amazing, amazing music.

This is Morena featuring Marcos Valle, the artist is Momo, and the album is called Toom Toom Toom, and it came out already in mid-June. You have been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Soraya Mohamed. And Sonali Maita is executive director. And by the way, Felix and I, we get tired of talking to each other. We would rather hear from you. So leave us a review because that's one way to talk to us, or send us an email at Alt Latino

at NPR.org. That is alt latino at npr.org. I say that like I'm doing an annuncion you could just rewind the podcast. Anyways, we would love to hear from you.

We sure would, man. I'm Felix Contredas. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thank you for listening.