NPR Music - Alt.Latino's best new music round-up: Danny Ocean, Girl Ultra and Superfónicos

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayre run through their favorite new music, including new work from Venezuelan artist Danny Ocean in the midst of the country's political crisis, Girl Ultra leaning into her techno side, funky, electro-cumbia from Superfónicos and more.Songs featured in this episode:•Superfónicos, "Renaceré"•Girl Ultra, "lalala"•Fuerza Regida, "TUQLO"•Danny Ocean, "por la pequeña Venecia"•Lisa Morales, "Hermanitas in the Rain"•Jazz Orishas, "Deniye"Audio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Taylor Haney, with editorial support from Hazel Cills. Our project manager is Grace Chung. NPR Music's executive producer is Suraya Mohamed. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.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

Guess what I just figured out? I've been staring at the title of this Wersa-Rajida song for so long. I was like, T-U-Q-L-O. Like, what could that? I was like, is this comes to someone in slang, I don't know? Like, I'm so confused. Tu-Colo. You picked the song with Kul' in the first line.

Kulo's not a bad word. Yes, it is. What? Yes, it is. No way. Yes, it is. I'm in trouble. From NPR music, this is Alt Latino.

I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Say it. You're already making me laugh. You didn't even say anything. Say it. Say your part. My part?

Oh. This is off to a great start. Let the cheese may begin. Thank you. All right. New music this week, as usual, we have a ton of stuff. I had a hard time narrowing it down because there's so many different things out there. I know you did too.

It's summertime, Felix. That's true. The world is alive and the music is pumping. Oh, my God. You have too much coffee this morning. Okay, let's start with you going to your tracks then. So this is Girl Ultra, who we know, we love. I interviewed her almost a year and a half ago in Mexico City.

She's kind of like the reigning, cool girl of the South Side. She started as a DJ. Got this name, stateside as like a Mexican R&B artist, and I was really excited when I heard this record because she was talking about it when we met, way long ago. I was really excited when I heard it because this is her like re-emerging, reintroducing herself, I think, as her core centric DJ fun techno self. So this is a track and you didn't believe that I wanted to do this one, Felix, because it's all instrumental, but I love it.

It's called La La La. And that is the entire track. That's the whole thing. Let me to explain. Please do. I am now embodying Felix explaining a jazz cut. So one, I would just love to note that I think Mexico City does not get credit enough for its like very much booming house techno scene. We talked about this with Edgar Barrera of it kind of having this history of a lot of these early kind of techno cumbia rebaugh influences what is now like a very much booming electrocumbia scene. And Mariana or Girl Ultra, she's always fit really nicely into that. I picked this track in particular because it has this fun like, techno piano riff that is kind of to me like her signature calling card you hear it across a lot of

her songs, even the ones that are more quote unquote R&B from her. But then you have all this really beautiful disjointed kind of wind sound that feels a bit jazzy to me, Felix, in its electronic way. And I don't know if you might disagree with me on that, but I just really love the flow of the song, the way that she kind of moves through this interlude to kind of tie together a really interesting moment on the EP, which is called blush. And I do want to note for people, Felix, that this is the only purely instrumental track on the EP. There's all kinds of sounds. And I think what's beautiful about this one is it embodies all the fun that she has across the record with the vocals, too.

I will admit, I was a little surprised at how short the track was that you wanted to play. But I see what you're talking about, how it sets the scene for not just Mexico City and makes an artistic statement, but also it's in line with a lot of the jazz that we're hearing out of New York out of here in this country. and I'm going to do something a little different because we're going to play a little bit of the track again because you've got to listen to the snare and this is what I was talking about recently on all things considered when I was talking about

some music that came in for the Tiny Desk Contest. I'm going to start it again and listen to the snare. That very ratat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tack, concert rat-a-tat on the snare. That's new to me, right? There's a lot of young guys who've been doing this for a while and I'm only now picking up on this new thing And it's a more involved transition from the swing symbol to the ratat-tat of the snare.

But that's what's happening in jazz and it's coming through in her music. It's amazing. I'm really glad you brought it in. I didn't listen to it closely before. But thanks to you, I'm getting some insight into exactly what we're hearing. Well, thanks to you. Now I have the broader context. But I think there's something about her that is so appreciative.

It's funny because you would look at her and be like, oh, well, she's just a DJ out of Mexico City. What's so special in some ways about that? but she is so conscious of what she comes from. I mean, she talked a lot about that in the interview that we had. She's very much a representative of the city. So much of her work is so intentional around bringing in other sounds, even if it's under this kind of more, like, techno-electronic umbrella. And so I'm always really interested to see, like, oh, what's Mariana up to?

Because that feels like it's really in deep with what the city is up to. She's in touch with the beating heart of the city. Oh, wow. Ooh. See, it's only nine in the morning and we're already getting so profound. People should know that it's 9 o'clock in the morning when we're taping this because they're going to be listening at all hours of the day and night, okay?

And repeatedly, I'm sure people listen to us over and over again. They just want to hear your voice over and over and over again. They need to know that this is 9 o'clock in the morning. This is how you are all the time. Okay. Speaking of beating heart of the city, now I want to go to the beating heart of another city, Austin, Texas, with my track from a band called Superphonicos,

they are veterans of the Austin Latin funk scene. And there's a thriving funk scene there. Going back many, many years, usually Adrian Casado, the record producer, composer, arranger, who's also the leader of Black Pumas right now. Usually he's involved, but this is part of the legacy he's created with a lot of other musicians there, including group of fun.

Tasma, Manichita, others. This is Superfonicos. Most of the band has Colombian roots, so they lean a lot into the cumbia, but in electronic way, as you mentioned, like they do in Mexico City. I like that they also mash up the Afro-Caribbean and funk. And it's kind of retro because it reminds me a lot of the stuff that the bands from the 1970s were doing beyond Santana. There were a lot of bands that were meshing funk and Afro-Caribbean music. And I like the mission statement on the Superphonicos website. It's Their music is a reminder to let go and embrace an experience that is more connected to the earth and our ancestors. And they do it very, very well on this track called Renacere.

You know, Felix, I actually almost brought this one in. Get out of here. I did. And I was like, I know for a fact Felix is going to have to bring it in. So I'm not even going to try. But I really love what they're doing here because I think it speaks so well. We've been having a lot of conversations about this of like new young bands who are very much in this stage of preservation of traditional instrumentation, of folk music. And it's so crazy because not that long ago here in New York, I went and saw Combo Chimita and such a different interpretation, right, but still like very much an integration of some of these traditional instruments, like the percussion of all of the.

it is tight across the board for them and for combo, but in a very different way. So it's really cool to see not only what these young new bands are doing to reinvent and make contemporary these sounds, but also the way that this diaspora is kind of spreading everywhere and doing something entirely different, but really, I think, preserving the essence of these instruments. And I'm glad you mentioned that, because there are these particular drums in Colombia called Tambores Alegres, which is a Colombian drum with West African origins. It's an evolution of the drum from West Africa commonly referred to as a jembe, which is using a lot of different cultural ensembles.

But they preserve it. These musicians, they travel with these things. They've built special cases so they can travel all over the world, and they use that underneath. And groups like Superphonicos, when they reproduce that on Congas or some of the other drums, it's still the same thing as the essence of what it is that they do. And again, that's why I really like this stuff, because it does remind me of the stuff I heard in the 70s, man.

This could be, there was a band with West African roots in London called Ossibisa, and this sounds so much like them. Wow. I was a fan then. I'm a fan now. But I think, Felix, you know, if you can adhere to or stay pretty close to tradition, it makes sense that, like, when you stick to certain rules and you stick to certain kind of energy and experience through these instruments,

you're going to hear a really nice through line. And that, I mean, I love D'Amores Aligres literally, like happy drums. It's so beautiful. How could you not like Tampore's Allegra? I remember the first time I heard one and I was like, yep, it is a happy drum. Okay, your turn, what do you have? Felix, I am sitting here almost ready to jump out of my seat because what better way to rain in this 9 a.m. taping that we're talking about as to bring more of an instance to the music that we have.

So this is Fuerza Regida. I believe I have brought on music from them before. I would describe them as like kind of the bad boys of the regional Mexican scene right now. Like if you think of Grupo Frontera as like the cute nice guys, Wurza Raghida is like we're funky and we're out there and we're pushing the envelope in kind of raunchy ways. So they just dropped another album. And I'm really excited about this one because it's kind of like a continuation of a trend that Pesopuma dipped his toes in. and they just went all the way for it.

So I'm going to let you listen to this track. Its title is called T-U-Q-L-O, and I will not say out loud. You'll have to think about it a little bit what it actually means. If you look at it over and over again, you'll figure it out. Write it down, people, and then take some time to think about it. It took me a minute, but I finally got it. I mean you Okay, they went to

My Okay, they went through a whole bunch of stylistic changes. Okay, okay. Also, Felix, if you could see me right now, I'm literally like bouncing to the sky, obviously. Exactly what you're doing. So what I love about this, there's a lot of things I love about it. It's called, but not te ennamores, which means but don't fall in love, basically.

And this is the first track on the album and the fact that they opened this song saying, I saw your hair and I like your butt. I'll say but, as Felix pointed out to me, the direct translation is slightly raunchier than but. But the point is here, I love the fact that something this raw and funny and funny and silly could actually be really innovative in my opinion because this really is the first full album venture out of the genre. Like there's been a lot of these regional Mexican musica mexicana artists who have been kind of dabbling experimenting with stepping outside of the Corrio Tumbado space like I kind of mentioned. Pesso Pluma had a disc two on his last record where he tried to do that.

But honestly, I have not heard a band do it as seamlessly and naturally as Hwarza Regida did on this album. They went super electronic. They collaborated with a lot of well-known electronic bands, but they also, in this track in particular, did a little bit of a Batchata beat under it, and it actually works really well, Felix. You know, what you're talking about,

the bad boys versus the good boys, that goes back to like the 1960s and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones were the bad boys kind of unruly, and the Beatles were the nice guys in the matching soon. suits and the Beatles were singing all, I love you and, you know, yesterday and all this, and the Rolling Stones were singing, I can't get no satisfaction. Okay?

You know what I mean? So there is an equivalent to going back to, from my era, I can feel that and what these guys are doing and what the other bands are singing about the same time. And it's interesting to me too, Sonically, Felix, because in many ways, even though there's really not much, especially, for example, in this track that sounds very regional, Corrieu, et cetera. It doesn't feel like an extreme departure for me. Like there's something about the way that the song moves. Again, it takes me back to our conversation actually with Edgar Barrera, where he mentions marshmallow adding his drums on El Marengue. They have these really intense

moving baselines and percussive beats that are obviously electronically rooted, but have this kind of energy and tempo to it that feels reminiscent of a chargetta or a 12-string guitar. I think, and I'm going to go out on the limb here, but I think what you're hearing is the genre expanding, right? It's growing. By definition, regional Mexican or Mexican or Mexican, whatever you want to call it, is a translation of something that was like 100 years old.

And then they're doing it and doing it, and it starts to grow little by little. They're adding country elements. And now this stuff right here, it's like the early states of hip-hop, the same thing. It's like you start adding these elements and it starts to change little by little.

Somewhere in the base, there's the roots, but this thing right here is, to me, a definitive statement of how the music is changing, growing, and developing. But the heart, the basis of it, has an energy that is rooted in a tried and true genre. That's what I really love about it. It's like, oh, there's an energy here that doesn't come from nowhere. It comes from really, like, we've tested these sounds, and now we're just adopting them, presenting them in a different style, which is amazing to me, and also saying all the while, I saw your hair and I like your butt. Alt Latino keeping up with the latest trans and the latest club action with new music here.

You are listening to Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. I'm Ana Maria Sayer. And we're going to keep listening to the music right after this. Okay, so now we're going to talk about something pretty serious, Felix. Venezuelan artist Danny Ocean just released an EP called Vinikia. And it's coming on the heels of something really massive in Venezuela. You know, it takes place in the larger context of more turmoil.

oil in the country. On July 28, there were presidential elections, and a few days later, the incumbent president, Nicolas Maduro, claimed victory. And many international observers challenged that victory, saying that the election was somehow controlled or influenced by the Maduro government. There were massive demonstrations in different parts of the country, and some of those folks challenging the elections lost their lives protesting. Then the U.S. State Department chimed in in challenging the legitimacy of the elections. And eventually, the opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, claimed that he actually won and Maduro was in fact stealing the elections. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of a long history of political and

social strife in Venezuela. Now, a week before all of this, before any of these outcomes, before Danny Ocean or the rest of Venezuela, really knew what was going to happen here. This artist, who is maybe the biggest artist to come out of Venezuela right now, releases this EP called Venechia. Now, Venechia is the name that Venezuelans across the world, scattered by the political situation that has been happening since 2015, have started to kind of affectionately call themselves. It comes from what was originally kind of a slur out of Colombia. Veneco is what they were calling Venezuelans there, that has now been kind of adopted with Carino. It's the silliness, the hard stuff, the good stuff, the crazy stuff of what it means to be Venezuelan across the world. So I'm going to play you a little bit of one of the tracks off this EP called Bordel.

the Pechaenae Venezuela. Now what's incredible to me is Danny Ocean is traditionally a pop artist He's someone who loves to talk about love on all of his records His most famous song, Me Recuso, is a song that got all over the globe and it's supposed to be about heartbreak.

But the amazing thing about this record is, one, he's talking, like, in this song about what could be construed as a lover, but when in reality he goes back and he revisits a lot of these songs, including Merrhuso, and everyone begins to realize, oh, the love is about Venezuela, and the jilted love is really about Venezuela. I mean, you can look at the lyrics of this song, and you see, he starts the song by saying, you didn't keep what you promised.

Years of deception, you lied to me. And it could be talking about a lover, but obviously in the context of who he is, and he's been very vocal on social media since he released this EP before as well, about Venezuela. And the beautiful thing about this EP, Felix, is the way that it moves,

the way it's poppy, it's electronic, it's serious but fun. It feels like he's trying to be seen. He's trying to be heard in the way that Venezuelans right now are across Latin America. they're asking for their situation to be seen. And he does it so personally.

He does it in a way where you feel like you're part of the love story and you feel like you're part of the situation. And that to me is what's so effective about this EP because he couldn't have predicted how in the days since he's released it, it's become almost an anthem in some ways for a lot of people across Venezuela. I want to play for you, Felix, this amazing TikTok that I saw of people because people have been protesting, Venezuelans have been protesting across the world.

And I saw this amazing video from Spain. So what we're seeing is in the center of Barcelona, Venezuelans gathered from all around the city, maybe from all around the country, and they're playing Mereuso as an anthem for their protest. And what's basically happened is people have taken this music and they've adopted it to really explain and give voice to what is kind of impossible.

I mean, it's impossible to explain the heartbreak of people who are spread all across the country. Most of the people, a lot of the people who are involved in this struggle, are watching from outside. And so it's more than words can really explain, but it's really the feeling. And this artist is really expressing that feeling perfectly. And it's another example of musicians from Latin America using song, using music, to express the deeply felt emotions of what's going on in their country, so that the rest of the

world be tuned in, going back to the 60s and all the way through. That's really a remarkable story. Thanks for bringing that song in. Okay, we're going to start to wind things down a little bit with two tracks that I brought in. Two very, very different female vocalists from two very, very different traditions in the Latin music diaspora and Latin music umbrella.

The first one is Lisa Morales. She is another artist that exists in the nexus of blues, rock, Mexican ranchettas, and country music. And I've been going down that rabbit hole a lot lately, and I'll talk about that later. but Lisa and her sister Roberta were the group, the Sisters Morales. And they started performing together as kids in Tucson. They formed a band.

They did things individually for a while. They got back together. You know, like sisters, they were going back and forth. And eventually they got back together and they were making this great music. They have a wonderful rich trove of personal songwriting, amazing sibling harmonies. And then unfortunately in 2021, Roberta passed away from cancer. And Lisa Morales' upcoming album Sonora is their first since her, She says it's not a grieving album, but she says the songs, all of these songs came out unconsciously, like an eruption, like a purge.

This new track is a tribute to her sister. It's a reminder of their days when they were splashing around in the rain in the streets of Tucson. This is called Hermanitas in the Rain. Sister takes me by the hand. She says, let's go down the block. I just saw the... I did everything I could to... force myself to prayer myself, to steal myself to not cry.

I was literally about to say I would bet so much that Felix is crying on the other side. I've been a fan of Sisters Morales for a long time. I've been listening to them for a while. I love their harmonies. You know, they are from Tucson. They are cousins of Linda Ronstadt, so music runs in their family. And one of the things that I really like about it was that connection that they had. And in reading some of the stuff on her website, and in the press release, she talked about how she misses just picking up the phone and being able to talk to her sister about a song

or the idea or stuff like that, right? And she said all of this stuff just came coming out. This is an early single. It comes out in September, September 13. I just want more people to know more about Lisa Morales and the Sister's Morales catalog. It goes back to 1997. Like I said, it's so rich.

Songwriting, vocals, all that stuff. Yeah, I feel like that. From what I understand, too, the entire record is dedicated to her sister, their relationship, kind of navigating that. And it makes sense to me in so many ways because even just listening to this song, it is such an obvious and natural blend of who they are in their kind of mixed identity, growing up on the border, being Mexican, living in Tucson. And you literally hear her slide so seamlessly from a country sound into almost like arranchera. moment as she's talking about some of these family moments about her sister, which is also funny to me, Felix, because you have said the ongoing forever debate about Latin country and you just keep bringing cuts that so perfectly personify it. But all to say, it really, I mean, I read that

she started writing the song three days before her sister actually passed and you can tell it is just such an authentic representation of all the parts of who she is, who her sister is, who her family is. There's some really beautiful lines in both English and Spanish that I think just pay such a beautiful homage to all that they have created together and that she'll continue to create in her memory. It's also such a spanning song, like a life spanning song to me, because she's obviously talking about their childhood together in the wake of her sister passing away. And she even alludes to her mom apparently crawled to the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, for those who know, very significant, religious and cultural thing to do.

And she did that in order to have them. And so she has this line where she says Guadalupe, she watches over us. And there's something really amazing about really invoking that line of how they came into the world in the moment that her sister is leaving it. There's something, wow, just incredible about that to me. Yeah, there's a whole conversation about the Virgen de Guadalupe that we can have some other time. It's more of a cultural symbol than a religious symbol. and I think Lisa Morales is very effective

in using that symbolism in this song. Again, the track is called Hermanitas in the rain. The vocalist is Lisa Morales. The album's called Sonora, and it's coming out of September. Check it out. And the other vocalist I have lined up is an Afro-Cuban jazz vocalist by the name of Melis Santa.

She is a very, very talented pianist, vocalist. She's actually on two Tiny Desk concerts. She came and performed with Jane Bunette and Maqueque years ago. And most recently, She performed with jazz saxophonist Kenny Garrett and his ensemble. And we had her in between that at Jazz Piano Christmas, all of which you can find at our website at NPR.org if you want to hear those performances.

But anyway, this is her new track, Dine Yeh from the album Jazz Orishes. Mildes Santa is a product of the amazing music schools they have in Havana. She studied piano. And like most musicians there that come through those academies, what happens is they study all this classical stuff during the day. and then at night when they go home is where they hear the popular music, the Rumba, the Donson,

all that stuff that's part of the contemporary scene. That's how it used to be now. Some of that stuff is included in the curriculum. But there's two sides there. So they're incredibly proficient classical players. You and I saw it when we were there in Havana at the jazz festival this past January. And then they have this great feel

for the traditional Cuban music and Cuban dance music. And Melvis is one of those musicians who walks in both worlds just as proficiently as the other. Felix, I have to imagine that this is what the cool kids of jazz conservatory are playing.

They go to all their classical training and then they're kind of sneaky on the side making something really a little bit with like a fun jumpy electric guitar and like something that really moves in a way that I think is really cool and feels like it fits into a contemporary space really nicely.

Like this is a fun track to listen. to for sure. There's so many layers to this record and it's really a lot of fun to listen to. So you got to check it out. It's Jazz Orishas is the name of the band and Melra Santa is the leader of the band and a friend of NPR here. So we're always happy to play her music. And that's going to do it for this week. Great stuff you brought in. Already? Oh my God. I had fun with this one. This was good. You have been listening to Outlighting from NPR Music. Our audio producer for this episode is Taylor Haney with editorial support from Hazel Sills. The woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chung.

Saria Mohammed is the executive producer of NPR music. And our half-ane chief is Keith Jenkins' BP of Music and Visuals. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayre. Thank you so much for listening.