NPR Music - Alt.Latino: The beauty of simplicity

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

The past month has been a whirlwind. The El Tiny takeover of the Tiny Desk... interviews with some of the most exciting artists in Latin music... and, of course, puppets! So, for today's episode, we emerge from the craziness and dig into our neglected mailbag, which is brimming with new music. What did we find? Simple beauty. A young songwriter from Veracruz whose spare compositions have wowed his elders. An offbeat producer from Madrid. And, a joyful ode to a city half a millennium old. Featured artists and songs:- Arath Herce, "Musas en Mi" and "Quien Pensaría"- iLe, "Si Te Contara"- TRISTAN!, "Voyage" and "Ártico"- Venezonix ft. Pahua, "La Soledad"- Meme de Real, "Estaba Sentado" and "Embeces"- Bomba Estereo ft. Carlos Vives, "La Samaria"This podcast was produced by Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed.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, I'm here. You're here. I had to get a massage this morning. I need a massage. No, actually, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get a massage from this like curandera energy healer because after my doctor told me I was cursed, when you heard about all my history of injuries, I was like, I think I need to go see a curandera and see what's up. Because my friend was like, there must be something wrong.

Like, you keep having these weird feet injuries. Boy, if I could find a curandera here in Washington, D.C., I have a job for her. Full time. On the payroll. You have Kingspaw for that, Felix. It's okay. No, I mean, for the country. Oh, this is not the politics podcast.

This is not. Sorry. From the PR music, this is out Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the cheese may begin. Okay, Anna, we have been crazy busy the last month. Crazy.

Emphasis on the crazy. Amazing tiny dust concerts. El tiny. Lots of activity. Lots of us moving around. I think we were in Puerto Rico, you're in D.C. Now you're where. Where are you now? Mexico. I finished out the month where I properly needed to finish out the month in Mexico. So while we were doing all that, of course our new music stuff backed up. Of course it did. This has been kind of a crazy experience, Felix, because really I've never felt such an urge of like, I have such a mountain of music.

I can't, we can't do it all in one episode. There's such a pile up of amazing. Like everyone decided to throw all the best records Towards the end of the year, as they often sometimes do. This year is no exception. So that's what we're doing this week. We're kind of clearing out our mailbags, getting back to whatever it is. Okay. Mail bags.

Yeah, that's old school. The CDs is one thing, Felix, but the visual of the mailbags is really, you've taken it to another level. Well, my dad used to be a postman, so that's what comes to my life. Really? Yeah. I don't think I knew that. Yeah. I've heard it's great for your health, lots of walking.

He did a lot of walking. So who's first? Who's on the list? Can I go first? Yes, go. I know you're first on the doc, but I really am really just way too excited about what I have. So I think I have to go. Okay, you have to understand.

I have been waiting to play this record since I first listened to it. Last time I was Mexico, actually, in May is when I first heard this record. And I was like, it comes out next week. And the team's like, no, no, no, it comes out in October. And I was like, So without further ado, this is Arath Herz's new album, Musa S in Me, and I'm going to start with the title track, Musas and Me. Okay, I'm more alerted, my feet

my feet. I've been dead. ...that is 20 years old. But I've left all the curtains of the house abirtis, so enter when you do you see.

Entra with the sun. Okay, so Felix Arat is 20 years old. He started writing songs when he was just eight and he's been working in the industry for a long time, working with all these amazing collaborators. He did release a first album a couple years ago, but this is really one of his most

visible records that he's done. He has cosines, like basically all of your favorite most, like musicians, musicians like Jorge Drexler, and Natalia Lafourcade, even Armando Mansemero Felix. The old-schooled crooner.

Literally, the legend himself said that he was an amazing writer and amazing singer. It's his pen, Felix. I mean, the lyricism of the song It's like these beautiful, simple, lovely melodies. And then these lyrics, like this song where he says, Soloquiero Julesuaguer with your collection of words. Like, gorgeous.

I just want to play with your beautiful collection of words. And that's it's singing to his muse is literally the title track. It's the record. I have to play you another song. It's called Kien Pensaria. The simplicity is so So The simplicity is so intriguing.

It's just, it adds to the simplicity of that arrangement. And of course the lyrics on that song And the one you played before, it sounds like a 1990s Argentine rock band, right? Wow. You know, he worked, he collaborated on this record with Leifoldeck, which is like,

I don't know if you know who that is, Felix, but he's a very renowned Canadian producer, worked with a lot, a lot of people. And that's kind of thematically across his record, too. If you look at the names on who he worked on with the production, the mixing, the mastering, all of it. They're like, the joke is that he spent all of his marketing budget on just getting these, like,

amazing collaborators to work on this thing with him. And it really is one of those things where you can feel he's an artist who's so young and yet has really successfully already mastered the craft. Like just the simple craft. Like he could go all these different directions with his next records with whatever he does, do some fun production, make something really whatever. But he has that core, which is just like incredible lyricism and really simple yet like captivating melodies.

I'm a fan. Good call. Those were a couple songs off of Erce's new album, Musa in Me. Okay, I'm going to play a track from the vocalist Ile. The album's called Como Las Canto Yo. It's coming out in a couple days. This track is Si, Te Contra. There's so much to say about it that I almost can't even put it in the words. But let's hear the track first.

You know, when she was in our building our building last month to record with Adrian Casada and the other singers that he had with him. I forgot to ask her, I was going to ask her because I'd heard a couple of his tracks ahead of time. and I was going to ask her if she thinks that she was born too late if she's from another era because this sounds so like I don't know

40s 50s torts singer bolero like all of the above and her recording output since she stopped performing with her brothers in Calle 13

she's leaned into boleros she sang with Chelle Feliciano on that first record I mean she's really leaned into this whole undercurrent of boleros and tropical sounds and this nice, slow, sultry boletto mommel thing that she has going right here. I'm all in. I'm completely in.

I think it really suits the timbre of her voice because it's so dark and smoky and so expressive in just the way she was singing a note or something. So, you know, this is one of those records. I've spent too much time talking about it because he just listened. And I think you can immediately appreciate all the things that she's meant to do, but then also stuff that maybe she didn't realize that other people are going to interpret. I mean, I think that's a really interesting question, Felix. I love that question because I've said this before.

To me, Ile's strength, first and foremost forever and always is the dynamism of her voice. I mean, I don't know that she was born in the wrong era because it feels to me that she had. to start with what she did, which was this era of being in Caya Tresi, doing a completely, something that was stylistically of its time, thematically not so much, right? Like when you think about Caya Tresi, it made sense sonically for the moment, but they really did push the bounds in terms of how they did the music, why they did the music, what they talked about in the music. And so it makes sense on this journey when you think of her individually, being who she is, which is, She's such a fighter.

She's someone who is always at the forefront of all of the issues of being Puerto Rican, that she would then go seeking in the files of old sounds for the way that she could properly express herself. And of course, she had to be born and had to be created and grown up with a voice that could match the message of what she needed to deliver. And that's why, I mean, I hadn't heard this record yet, but I had no doubt. When I heard Boleros I was like, duh. Yeah. There was no doubt in my mind that she had it. Yeah, what she and her partner producer, Ismail Kansel, have done,

is just created this really amazing sonic palette for her to just kind of skip over and bounce on and just create all this really wonderful stuff in each record. The whole record is just dropped-dead gorgeous. It's another great chapter in the story that is Ile. The album is called Como Las Canto Yo. That track was called Si Te Conno. and the artist is Ile. Okay, your turn.

All right, Felix. I've got something weird for you. It's from my little collection of Spanish producers that I love in Madrid. This guy, his name is Tristan. And this song I'm going to start with is called Voyage. You're on a simple arrangement kick this week. And the beauty is into simplicity, honestly. The second there was like a little tickle of a conga, you were like,

your eyes were popping. Somebody's speaking my language. Literally. They're like, they're talking to me, but from space, it's conga's in space, literally. No, Felix, I don't have the words to describe this record because it's like the description is listen to the whole thing. Because it goes on so many different journeys. I mean, I'm curious what you heard in there.

I have some thoughts on what's in there, but. There's so many references, so many clear salutes to different legendary artists from the eras, from different geographies and generations and whatever. But it's this group, Russia IDK. I don't know what they, that's something in the water in Madrid. I don't know. Like, they're always doing the next innovative thing. So obviously, you know, they're their own band and they're doing what they do.

And as you correctly point out, I'm always listening for something that I recognize in the past. A reference, sonic reference, some kind of reference. And this is, I want to say it was like maybe the mid-80s. It was when I wasn't paying attention to pop music so much. But I was on the periphery. But some of the bands like, I want to say like the B-52s or something, like almost punkish in a way, like pop punk in a way because it's so stark. I used to derisively say, well, it doesn't take a lot of musicianship to play that music because it was so simple.

And that may have been the case. Maybe they could play their instruments or not. But the idea of being so simple and so stark and so direct to the point was the point. And I completely missed it when I was listening when I was, you know, oh, I'm listening to Jazz and the Grateful Dead all the time. I don't know. You know, I totally missed it. That's what these guys bring home. They bring home that point of the simplicity of it and the tightness of the arrangement.

And the kind of wacky vocal over the top, you know, and the lyrics and all that. But it's, I missed it the first time around. So I'm really digging it now. I have to play you another song to show you the diversity of what is happening on this record. This song is called Artico. Just simple, simple, simple. There's like 25,000 other sounds on this album. But I'm going to let you, I'm going to implore you, Felix.

to please listen to this. I was about to say get this record. In your mailbag, please? Can you get this? The record is called Tristan, Aura conrelo. What? I don't know, Felix.

I kind of felt identified in that title somehow. Okay, let's take a break to think about the meaning behind that title. We're going to take a break. We'll be right back. Okay, we're back, Felix. Okay.

I want to play something from a band, a musician that I, don't know a lot about, but what I do here is some really cool percussion. This is a project called Venezonics. It features a Mexican vocalist Pagua. I'll tell you who they are, but first, let's listen to La Soledadat. Me's oboeca, Tonto Calor, Sudda, down, down, derriending in the soul, my love,

I'm sure that no descanso. Vanianna me toca Otra Vuelta in the city Bananas de time Secondos Yeah no tendra Venezonics is a guy named Andres Ponce

He lives in Miami He's originally from Caracas He has another band called Elastic Bond This is his kind of percussion project that he works on The vocalist Pagua is Paolina Sotomayor

from Mexico You know, I was having a conversation recently with someone about the African diaspora in Latin America and how up to a certain point it was kind of frowned upon. It wasn't accepted. And my conversation was about how lucky we are

to be alive during this time when so many musicians are actually reaching out and digging into the culture, the rhythms, all of the stuff that comes from having a little bit of the African diaspora in their countries. So what ends up happening, is a guy like Andres Ponce is able to draw on that. And then, you know, people like Bombastario, all of these bands, right?

They draw on that and then they create something new and they celebrate that African heritage in different ways. And that wasn't always the case, as I said. So it's like it's just this flowering of African influence in the music combined with, you know, obviously dance stuff, electronic stuff. You know, I'm always there for the drum, man. So this kind of stuff just really speaks to me. I do, you know, feel as though, especially like the artists who are doing it right,

there's something really cool about the way that they manipulate these sounds to reflect their experiences. Because to have some of that lineage lost and then found again, it wouldn't make sense to revisit the original sounds and create the music exactly as such, right? But they take those sounds and they're like, let me just literally create an exacting conga thing. But then it's like the same exact, but then you just replace it with an electronic beat. You pull in the synth and it feels just as evocative of that feeling that those drums originally gave you, but just they fit into that person's current experience. And that makes for a really authentic sound. I think that's so cool.

The name of the band is Venisonics and features. the vocalist Pagua. The name of the track is La Soledad, and the album called Haspe is coming out November 7th. Can't wait to hear the rest of it. Tag, you're it. Okay, so Mehmet del Real, one of the singers of the legendary Cafete da Cuba band from Mexico. How would you describe Café de Cuba, Felix? Groundbreaking, rock in Spanish, Latin alternative changed the nature of what Mexican music can sound like band. Mexico into modernity, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. Yes, exactly.

Meme, all these years since, has never released a solo project until now. Lucky us. So I'm going to play you a song from it that specifically was one of my favorites. I did talk about this already on New Music Friday and on all things considered. But I didn't get to play this song, so we're going to play it now. It's called Estabba Sentado. I was sent down and I began to

I'm sorry Like if something I'm in something I'm sure I'm that I'm

I'm sure that something in my pasto I was I'm sitting and I started and

it's so to gover like you like if something in the time had changed

I'm maybe It's impossible not Or maybe Has it an incredible Heard resulted It's always It's impossible

Not to geek out Over the production Because Mem is an incredible producer He produces for a lot of other different people And he's worked You know, producing Certain aspects of the Cafitacuba output I mean he learned from the

best, obviously. Gustavo Santoolaya has been a major producer for that band. So, Gustavo Santoolaya is all over this record. Oh my gosh. They worked on it together, and they did all these. It feels like you can hear the way they were like, okay, so have you been hearing

this new stuff? This sounds really cool. Let's take this. Let's do this. Like, you can hear that all over the record. But this one felt the most like there was Gustavo right there. You could hear it with the Rondroko. It's really a sound that feels like him. So that's why I was like, oh, if I play it for Felix, I wonder if he'll notice.

And I love it. It sounds perfect. Oh, I can't wait to hear the rest. Okay, I have to play you one more that I wasn't going to play you because I already played it, but I do want to hear your reaction, so I'm going to play it. It's called Embesites. Then I despegues, From the earth, a little a little,

I alie The universe I found I I don't see if I'm so I'm so you You, Atrebette

and tell me that maybe that maybe you did you that you Dement, that I'm that I'm

That I'll Okay, I'm going to totally geek out on this one. Because in that section where he's just singing and there's little things on a little beats. It's in three. It's a waltz. It's like it's a ranchera. It's a waltz. One, two, three, one, two, three. One, one, two. It's a corridor. Really? Right? It's, and what happens underneath is what they're doing is, like there's, you count it.

One, two, three, one, two, three. That's the measure, right? One, two, three. But they're starting, like, there's a one part where it's like the first beat is in the last part of the measure. So it's too geeky to explain. But what they're doing with time is magical because it creates friction underneath a simple lyric and this lovely lyric. And it's just, that's the only thing there. And it's creating this, like, this sense of, you know, subconsciously, I think on the listener,

it creates this sense of uneasiness so that when that comes in, it sounds like a tuba playing. It brings it all back home. You know what I mean? It's like, brilliant. No, it's like the kazoo thing, too. It's the kazoo, too, which is like a totally interesting choice that I've heard a couple times weirdly, like reminiscent of Botella Tras Botella, honestly. Oh, yeah, yeah.

from way back at the origin of this explosion of Corridos and Bados. But, okay, so quick anecdote. Meme, I don't know why I always see him everywhere. Like, he's one of these people that every time I'm in Mexico, I always stay in his same neighborhood and we like the same coffee shop. And so I always run into him. And I saw him twice last week. And the first time was at this event that my friend throws,

it's called guitar rassos. It's kind of exploded into this really big event in Mexico City where they invite young corridos artists, young band artists to come. play. Recently, they started doing this thing where like a surprise big artist comes. So I was there on Tuesday night. And Jos Favela shows up. Wow. And Meme. And Meme does a banla version of Eres. And it was like this moment. Yeah. My God. I know. I know. I know. I know. And it was this moment that reminded me of like, Meme at his core, that's his core, right? Like you could strip back all the production and all the ways that Cafeta Cuba,

and now his solo project are doing all these, like, really innovative and pulling from all these inspirations, and Gustavo Santa Lai is a huge part of all of that, bringing Argentina. But his core is that. It's like Corridos, it's banda, it's the heart of the city and also Mexico at large. It's crazy to me. And that's, so when I hear this, it's like, yes,

it's taking it into the 21st century in all these ways. But also, he's, like, bearing his soul. Again, I can't wait to hear the rest of the record. That was a couple of songs. songs from Meme del Real's new album, La Montaña Encendida, which is also a great album name. Oh my gosh. Boy, we got them all stacked up, man.

This is so cool. Okay, we're going to close out with something that just feels good. This is a track by Bomba Stereo featuring Carlos Vives. It's called La Samaria. And let me just play it. Let me just play. This is a in the sun in the

of the sun in the after the ataldecer and and I'll regressa to be a little bit of the barrio and a party where all the world This is a song that celebrates

The city of Santa Marta, which is the hometown of both Bomba Stereo vocalist Lisa Mette and Carlos Vivas. And one of the most beautiful places on this planet. It's the 500th anniversary of Santa Marta. Wow. So this is a song celebrating that. It's the oldest city in Colombia. Wow. And a city that I am embarrassed to say have not had the pleasure of visiting yet.

So it's on my list of places to go. But everything about this song is what I enjoy so much. much about, you know, contemporary Columbia music. And when we started doing the podcast 15 years ago, Bomber Stereo was one of the first groups that we played. One of the first bands that I saw at South by

Southwest just before we launched that introduced me to the contemporary scene of Columbia. And their impact, their influence is, it's immeasurable. The track is called La Samaria that is Bomba Stereo

featuring Carlos Vives. Okay, We have to end this show because we have to go back into our mailbags and dig out. I'm already stacked for next week, Felix. You don't even know it's coming. My mailbag is overflowing, mountainous mail. You have been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Seraa Muhammad,

and the executive director of NPR music is Sonali Mipa. My name is Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thank you for listening.