NPR Music - Alt.Latino's Favorite music of 2025 (so far)

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

A look at some of the most intriguing music released during the first six months of the year.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

From NPR music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisme begin. You know, Anna, before we get started with music, I think we need to say that music does not exist in a vacuum. And I think we need to take a couple of minutes to talk just a little bit about what's going on in the world. It goes without saying that our community, Latinos at large, have been very much in the news lately. Being seen in this country, understanding Latinos in this country, I think one of the most effective ways to do that is to see our art. to hear our art, to hear the variety and the diversity and the complexity of our expression and our experiences, it all lives in the music. I'm really proud to say that Alt Latino has been doing this

almost from the beginning. Jasmine Garst and I, when she co-hosted the show, we did songs about immigration that told those stories. So we have covered immigration and how it impacts the people that listen to the music as well as the people that play the music. I can say, Felix, I am really proud that we get to talk about all kinds of music from all across Latin America, the Spanish language world. It's a really, really, really important moment, I think to be doing that.

This week, we're going to take a look back at the last six months and pull out some of our favorite recordings telling some of those stories. And with that in mind, I'm going to feature a recording by artists from Mexico. Someone that I discovered probably about a year ago at a festival,

her name is Damaris Bourgeois, and you've heard me talk about her before, Again, these are all artists that we've played on the show so far this year. Her album finally came out in May. It's called Folk Piranha. This is a track called No Es Normal. This is Damaris Bojjord. I really like her because of her take on Mexican folk music and Mexican region,

how it kind of all fits together. And the performance I heard, how she even dips into a little bit of country music here from North America for the United States. That's why I'm such a big fan of hers. And this album really just shoots her up to the top. We played a track earlier in the year when she just had a couple singles out. If you listen to the whole record, Anna, I can guarantee you're going to fall in love with her. Challenge accepted.

The album is called Folk Pirana. The artist is Damaris Bajur, and that track was called Norse Normal. Okay, so I'm coming in with my own Mexican artist, Felix. This is Paloma Murphy. You've heard me talk about her before. Yes. To me, my most promising little pop voice in Mexico right now, people aren't talking about her yet.

But believe me, by the end of the year, they will be. Trust me, because this first album was one of the most impressive initial forays into pop vocals that I have heard thus far this year, and I really, really am excited to see what she does. This is the song Sola. It was one of the singles she put out before the album was released. No, what I'll do you go

If you go and not Regress, I'm gonna'rida No, two songs on this record And I'm a pas to Buscando Mour in other person

That's a list to to give me it No two songs on this record, Felix are the same The way that she's able to put together something unique and distinct and catchy. She's using all the fun electronic production noises of all of your favorite coolest contemporary artists, but doing it a way that's unique, that's thoughtful.

The lyricism is just really, really impressive to me. Every single track truly for me was not skippable. I just, I see her going to major places. The album is called Owl and it's by Plaloma Morphy. You made me a fan, okay? I'm not going to lie. You made me a fan. Okay, when I think about 20, 25 so far, I think about all the jazz that I've brought this year, right? I think I really stepped it up this year. I brought in an album by the Chilean American guitarist named Camilla Mesa. Her album was called Portal. It was released in May. When I played a single from the album, I wasn't able to hear the complete album. And what I heard, I really liked.

the entire record is amazing. It is amazing. It's more than I even expected. And one song doesn't even scratch the surface of the amazing display of her lead vocals, the vocal arrangements. It's jazz, it's R&B. It's all of the above,

and it's none of the above. This track is called transmutation. The album is Portal. The artist is Camila Mesa. She may have started as a jazz guitarist, but her aesthetic is getting so wide. But right in the middle of this song, check out this guitar solo, because this is also who she is in addition to the vocals. Anna, when I say I was completely surprised by how good this record is, I'm not lying.

I've been listening to it a lot. Are you lying? I've been putting it on one of my Spotify playlists and putting it all in with other stuff. Who you pair it with? Oh, my God. That's what I always want to know. What's the Felix Perry? Oh, I wish I'd had time to pull up the, the,

this Spotify playlist. But it's like some other musicians from Latin America, from Argentina, from, you know, different places that are either singing or playing instrumentalist, you know, vocalists, et cetera. It fits right in. It also fits on with some of the other records that we're going to talk about toward the middle of this. But anyway, Camilla Mesa is her name. I'm a big fan. The album is called Portal, one of my favorites of the year so far in 2025. My turn. Again. Okay, so this is an artist that I brought almost at the very beginning of the year. It's very rare that I have a January record

that makes it this far. So that's how you know it's good. This is Spanish vocalist, Gerald La Joss. This was her second album ever. And oh my God, Felix, I could go on for like 20,000 years about this record.

First, I want to play you a little bit of her song. It's called Y-N-E-P-N. There's to be a man. There's so much to be said about cool alternative pop artist, like a lot of this kind of this kind of like experimental sound to her. But really everything she does, Felix, is built on that flamenco guitar, the flamenco vocals, and the clapping.

And I think it's exactly the palmas. And it's that rhythm. Everything is so percussive with flamenco in this very, like, natural way, right? It's like all about using all the parts of your voice, your vocal inflections, your palms to create that rhythm, to create that sound as the basis. And so I think because of that, there's a strength. to how this music moves. And Keralt La Jols is so talented at harnessing this strength

and using it to create something really unique. I want to play you a little bit of another song. It's called Un Poco Mas, with the plus on it. And just check out what she does with her voice here. Only, just changed my voice. Never had nothing and all of it had never had a d'i, and never I've had died, no, I've had my father, when I'd like I'd

but I've what I want to have my family. I never took nothing and all of it, and all I never had ever, never had died, no, I'd never had my dad and when I'd like but I've got my family, but I've never knew my family and I always knew me,

never had been to be, Do you remember Felix when we talked to that professor in Barcelona at the school where Rosalia had studying all these people? And she told us that there was traditional southern music from the south of Spain. And then they infused it with pain. And that's what created flamenco. And that to me is something I look for all the time in a flamenco vocal, right? It's like that tinge of just like, ugh. Like it's the gut.

And for her, you can hear it in the sound of her voice, but then she puts it over like hip hop beats. I'm consistently blown away by it. And every single person I show her record to, they're like, I'm hooked forever. That was a couple of more. That was a couple of songs from Kerala Joss's new album 9.30 p.m. A lot to take in. We're going to take a break. Catch our breath and we'll be right back.

Exhale. And we're back. Okay. Before we continue with our next couple of tracks, you know, I think people will notice that conspicuously absent are Bad Bunny, Natalia La Forkade, and even one of our favorites, Lido Pimienta. And they should all be top albums of the year and probably favorite albums of the year. But again, we're going for these artists that I think probably deserve much more recognition.

But let's talk a little bit about these other albums, especially Bad Bunny, because it was such like a social force. Talk a little bit about what it made it so special to you, because it was a big deal. It's funny because I said to you, I was like, I don't need to bring on that Bunny because we already talked so much about it. but really I could write a book about this album. You know, people keep asking me, I've done a lot of interviews since this album came out,

and people keep asking me, they're like, what is the power of Bad Bunny? What is the power of this record? And I literally just said this to someone. I was like, to me, there are two things that make music good. I was like, it either makes you miss something that you had, that you lost, or it makes you nostalgic for something you never had.

And somehow, Felix, Bad Bunny manages to do both of those things on this record. He is simultaneously calling home and being like, I miss you, Puerto Rico, and I'm coming back for you. And also, like, I don't feel enough of you. And I think that that is, like, an experience that is so recognizable and understandable and identifiable and it's so present. He's so good at putting it in the music that no matter who you are, where you're from, you can feel that. What it is to me, it's a level of authenticity of a feeling of aloneness, of a feeling of not enough and that's something that's like, oh la que los Mios Nuka Se Mooden.

Like, I hope that mine never move. Like, that's all of Latin America right now. And so I think people hear that record and they feel so deeply identified with what he's doing. And I think that even though he is from Puerto Rico and there are, of course, U.S. citizens, but that idea of not leaving

taps into what we talked about at the beginning of the show. It's like all of this stuff, all of things around immigration. But whether you have to leave, whether you have to stay, all of that, I hope mine don't move away. I could start crying.

It's just so profound about what's going on right now. But anyway, that was certainly wanted to highlight to be here of that particular article. Very quickly, I was, my son Joaquin is here for the summer, and we were at Macy's buying him nice button-down shirts because he's got an internship at this prestigious place. So we were there, and then there was a family like this, the man and a woman, Latinos, they're speaking Spanish, they're looking at the shirts,

and then maybe like a 12, 13-year-old girl. girl. And she goes, and this is something I'd even notice. So they're looking at church. And then all of a sudden, she goes, Mira, my cantante favorite, bad bunny. And he turns around. And it was saying, the guy goes, this type of his condo son, it was part of his underwear. Part of his underwear ad. The Calvin Klein? Yeah. Oh, my God. That's amazing. This type with calzone.

Wait, Felix, please tell me you watch the video. I sent you over the weekend. Yes. So one of the Mexican mom being like, I love Benito. That intergenerational thing, man. But anyway, yeah, he's certainly high profile. He's certainly having a big impact. And I can honestly say, I respect him for having impacted a very positive way.

It's so many good things. In the meantime, let's get back to the tracks that we brought in. I'm going to follow up with something that I brought in earlier. This is Boleros Psychedelicos dos. This is Adrian Kessada. The Who's Who on this record is amazing. He has some singles out. The whole album comes out at the end of June.

So it still qualifies for best of the year so far, I think. But Kuko, Ile, Daimea Rosena, Hermannos Gutierrez, Ed Maverick, Monterey Perine, Natalia Clavier, Hepe, Merea Ramos. And in this case, Angelica Garcia on the track, No Juego. It's Star-studied.

amazing. The albums called Boleros Psychedelicos Dos. The artist is Adrian Kisawa. I talked about Adrian when we brought in another track earlier this year and he's this incredibly creative guy that at one point when I interviewed him in 2014 he had

four different bands going actively and they were all completely different. He's got that kind of creative mind. Do want to mention also, that he was nominated for an Oscar in this year's Oscars for Best Original Song for Like a Bird from the film Sing Sing, which also featured the actor Coleman Domingo. There's prestige, there's authenticity, there's great music, and he hangs with all the people that we hang with, right? The album's called Boleros, Psychedelicos dos.

The artist is Adrian Casano. Okay, wrap us up. He hangs with all the people we hang with. I'm going to frame that. It's true. It's true. Look at the list. He hangs with all the people we hang.

with. Okay, bring us home. All right. I've talked about this scene of Spanish producers 20,000 million times. Rosowski, he's one of the most low-key ones. He has stayed under the radar for a long time,

very much staying in the producing space until, by the grace of God, Felix, this year he decided to give us a debut album, and my God, is it gorgeous? I think the thing with producers is there are always these excellent curators, they're always He's these excellent sound designers, but do they have the soul of an artist?

Do they have something to say? And I think Rosowski proved in every sense of the word he absolutely does. He's a classically trained pianist. He has all of the right rhythm. He beautifully underlays so many of the songs with gorgeous piano. He has actually an incredible voice. I have heard it raw. It's not raw on the record.

It has a lot of effects, but he layers his voice in beautiful ways. I'm going to play you a little bit of the song, Johnny Glamour. every you and I every single track, it's unique, it's thoughtful. It's like, again, he has all the right voice. He has all the soul. He has a lot to say. The lyrics are gorgeous. But then it has that producer precision laid on top of it. It's really a joy and really interesting to listen to from start. to finish. This is a song I'm going to have us go out on. It's his track with Ralphie Chu. It's called Baby Romeo.

It's hard to believe six months has already gone by and before you know, we'll be at the end of the year going our best of the year. But in the meantime, tons of great new music coming our way. Can't wait. I have no idea what to expect, but it's always something thrilling. A lot going on in the world, Felix. But we will be here talking about all of the incredible music coming out from all across the Spanish language world. There's always, always, always tons of incredible stuff. We're always keeping tabs on. And it's a great place to just relax, enjoy, experience the fruits of what is some incredible diverse sounds that we have coming out of all of Latin America. Thanks to our audio producer, Simon Retner,

for pulling this all together. The woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chung. Zerahrae Muhammad is executive producer of NPR music. And this week, A special thanks to Keith Jenkins for all of his unwavering support for all Latino over the years. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Thank you for listening.