NPR Music - Alt.Latino's new music round-up: Elsa y Elmar, Alih Jey and Little Jesus

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

Anamaria Sayre brings some exciting new sounds coming out Mexico City (while recording from Mexico City) including sweet new music from Colombian artist Elsa Y Elmar, while Felix Contreras shares new jazz-classical out of Barcelona and more.Songs featured in this episode:•Elsa y Elmar, "Palacio"•Alih Jey, "Luz de Gas"•Little Jesus, "Tierra Llamando A Sant"•Lucia Fumero, "Folklore II"Audio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Simon Rentner. 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

Ready? Five, four. Three. Jeez. We can't even count. Okay. Try it again. Okay.

So, Felix, I don't really know about you and what you're doing today, but this, for me, is my Mexico City themed show. Just we should let the audience know that you are, in fact, in Mexico City, and I'm stuck in D.C. Doing all the word. Go like a galamante. From NPR music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras in Washington, D.C. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer in Mexico City. Let the Chis May begin.

And boy, do I get a lot of Chismea want here, Felix. Oh, my God. And I'm going to kick things off, actually, with the artist that I came here to interview. Her name is Elsie Elmer. And I actually brought a track off of her latest album. But that was, like, way back in March. And I haven't talked about it since.

So the album came out August 29th. And I personally have been listening to it. I love it. The album is called Palacio, and this is the title track off of it, also called Palacio. Who is going to see? That's going to be

a life, to encounter a man. Like a song, no, a, I don't know what I know what I didn't know what

could be. So, yeah, that's you'll never per die, I only did. And I was told me So Felix, I've been tracking with Elsa for quite some time now.

She's been making music for quite a while. She's actually from Colombia originally, but a Mexico City transplant has lived in the city for the past eight years. And graduated from Berkeley, I've always been waiting, you know, knowing she's a really talented songwriter, but waiting for a little bit more definition to her sound. And this album to me, like this is her grown-up album.

It's very focused on introspection and authenticity and kind of having that, you know, so many songwriters and singers, I think that the biggest challenge is just to be themselves. And that is exactly what this is. I mean, it's a variety of styles. It's rocky. It's poppy. It's bumpy.

It's bumpy. It's punky. But it's so her. She's very spunky. She's very fun. She's very out there. And this is like her being very comfortable with putting that at the forefront of her sound. I have to admit, Anna, that that is the name that I see pop up very often,

but I haven't spent a lot of time with her music, and I'm really glad you brought this in, because it's sort of what I expected, but so much more. Her writing is very insightful. Well, and I'm really glad, Felix, like, if you're going to jump in at any moment, this is the time. She says this amazing thing. She says, freedom is acting in a way that is congruent with how you feel and think,

and she is very much this proponent of showing up as yourself in whatever way, shape or form that takes. And I think, you know, we talk a lot about the fluidity of these younger artists in genre and in style and in theme. And she's really embracing that. This song, particularly, like, it's a simple, nice, sweet pop structure, but it just, there's a really beautiful Elsa weirdness to it. Authenticity that I just think a lot of young people really do resonate with. So it's exciting to see her go in this direction. My pick also is a song. And it's a songwriter I think that deserves a lot more recognition. I brought in an artist by the name of Ali Jay.

She has a new single out called Luce de Gass. She's known primarily as a songwriter in the industry. Lots of people, lots of big names, A-listers. But she's been steadily releasing her own stuff on her own as an independent artist. So I brought in this track, Lus de Gase. I tell you a little bit more about her, but let's check the song out first. Wow, I'm like, we are very like popper songwritory today. This is very consistent.

This song is about rebirth. And, you know, oddly enough, like I've talked to some friends who are sort of going through the same thing, redefining their lives, re-examining what it is, who they are, what it is that they do, stuff like that. So this song really resonated. You know, it also sort of points to where we are, at least in this country, about what we're about to go through. It's going to be reborn in some way or another. It's a good time to start thinking about. who we were, where we want to be, and then, like, what's going to happen anyway?

Just the idea that society will change in some way or another, and I think that this song speaks to that. Felix, this is so strange because so many of my friends are going through rebirth right now. You know, I arrived to Mexico City, and it's like heartbreak era for all my friends. You mean romantic heartbreak? Yeah, and they're all turning to the music. The most of them work in music, but they never turn to music in that way. And so I think it's like it's acting as a guide for them.

as they experienced these feelings for the first time. And so having a song that can chart out that rebirth. I mean, it's really important. The song is called Lus de Gas and the artist is Ali J. Okay, your turn. There was nothing more quintessentially Mexico City than Little Jesus. This band has been on the scene now for quite a few years. And the thing about this city, Felix, I mean, we've talked about this a lot.

It's evolved a ton. It's had all these different eras, but it's become this epicenter of what is like the pan-Latin sound of what is people coming from all over Latin America. But in doing so, it's kind of been losing a little bit of its soul in terms of like what is the actual authentic local sound. Savas, it's like, oh, now we're incorporating everything. But what is the Mexico City community? A lot of my musician friends here have actually said, like, we want more of like an authentic from here, not transient, you know, sound. And Little Jesus was one of like the leading indie bands who was kind of spearheading that Mexico.

City sound. They dropped off the face of the earth for like five years. And they came back with an album. I love it. It's incredible. This is a track off of their new album. It's called El Show De Be Continuad, very appropriately named. And this is a track off that new album, which is called Tierra Yamado Assan. Most Mexico City things to me, Felix, is this city, I think, loves to kind of play with itself and make fun of itself in a way. Like there's this very kind of, playful, fun, silly music scene that is never really taking itself too seriously. And this very much feels like throw spaghetti at the wall and see what happens in a way that feels really just refreshing. Like they're not making this for anyone except to be in the studio

messing around with each other. And I really like that feeling. I'm a little confused because how does this sound like Mexico City right now? Because to me, Sure. This sounds like, you know, like Blondie era pop alternative stuff that was happening here in the United States. The basic, dum, do, do, do, do, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, light electronics, nice little light beat you can bop around with. Like, how is that any different, or am I hearing it incorrectly? That's a great question. I think context here of where we're at, like if this to me is a contemporary adaptation of something that, yes, you are described.

And I think what is important to remember about this city too is a lot of people are like, oh, this is now a city of banda, or this is a city of reggaeton, or this is a city of all of these sounds that are very much like de mova in Latin music, popular Latin music at this time. And a lot of that is being made here. But that to me is not the heartbeat of what this city is. This city is kind of obsessed with nostalgia. Like you bring red hot chili peppers and they lose their goddamn eyes. They are really still in that era, in that moment, and very interested, I think, in continuing to kind of invoke some of those sounds. Interesting. It's the same as, you know, the British blues guys taking the blues form and creating something new with it, right? Or just recreating it. So, yeah, there's no shade at all thrown at these guys and what they're doing and how this record sounds. It's just that I wanted to find a way in. And thanks for the context. When we're talking about this city, it's a massive city, which obviously transience is inherent to that. It's integral to having such a large place, but there's still so much that is native to hear. And I think there's a lot of people still trying to excavate, like, what that native sound is.

And this is part of that process. Yeah, I would listen to this song again. Okay, Anna, I'm really digging the Mexico City theme. But I'm going to break the flow just a little bit for the last song in the show today, because I'm going to take us to Barcelona. Yes, the other city where there's this amazingly creative hotbed of musicians doing a lot of cool stuff. I don't know how I found it. I was just poking on names on a streaming service that starts with us. And I saw this name.

There's an artist named, Lucia Fumero. Wait a second. That's not true. I showed you this album. You just fabricated a story. Wait, wait, wait. I don't. Oh my God.

This is so classic. Let's say the name. The name of the album is Folklore 1 and Folklore Tour. One or Two. The artist is Lucia Fumero. Listen to the harmonies on this track. In that kissierra he'll reichar me and to rank

and to my clavis of my pen. But my eyes When did you tell me the last one before, when did you tell me? I showed you her album, her last, not this last one, I showed her the one before. I sent you a song off of it. I'm not going to admit in front of all these people

that I don't read your text. So, so. Maybe it didn't get delivered. Give me some credit, man. You know how often, everyone needs to know how often you do this. Okay. No matter who discovered this, okay, we're both landing on Lucia Fumero. She put out two records in September, folklore one and folklore two.

Fascinating collection of jazz, classical, folk, all kinds of stuff. She has Argentine and Swiss roots. She's living in Barcelona. She's mixed in all this milieu of amazing musicians. And I encourage everybody to go in and listen to both of these records. I will give you a pass on this one because I've actually been talking about Barcelona a lot with my friends here. Like they are so fascinated by and inspired by the scene there. Like I have a friend I was talking to the other day who just spent a lot of time there and he's like,

there is such a valuation there for live instrumentation and really returning back to the basics and the simplicity and kind of stripping everything away and just like focusing on good songwriting and beautiful musicianship. Both of these records are exactly that. But you probably already knew that because you're the one who introduced her to me and you heard these albums already. And I'm just trying to catch up and not paying attention to your text. Okay, I get it.

I get it. I'm so glad that we are recording right now. I'm going to cut that little piece of sound and play it back to you 10 times a day. Let's take a break. We're going to be right back. Hold on. Anna, I got to say I'm having a lot of fun with our segment songs at Move You.

We're hearing some very, very great stories from people with these songs. I just like hearing back from the listeners. We always project out, pass music onto people, but hearing back from the listeners themselves about how these songs impact them, obviously is having a very emotional impact on me. Oh, yeah. It's been everything to me to get that, to be able to hear what it means to everyone. I mean, you feel so close to people.

We were like, wow, that song made me feel that way too, but different. On this week's song to movie segment, I had a story about a guy who lost the love but gained a family. I'm a Russian Jew by birth and by upbringing, but I found myself culturally homeless. His name is Maxim Svetovat, and the song that moves him is a bolero called Boy, performed by vocalist Diego El Cigala. The first part of the story is about falling in love. Ah, amor. In the late 1990s, Max was a recently arrived immigrant who was starting his college classes and living in the U.S. for the first time. And as college students tend to do, Max found himself head over hills for a fellow student.

Or as he describes it. Love happened. She was from Venezuela. It was also a new immigrant. Oh, Felix, you know, I love a good love story. They fell in love and lived happily ever after. Not quite, but more about that later. What's different about this story?

is not only did Max fall intensely in love with a woman, he also fell in love with the culture. I really didn't feel at home in the American Jewish community. I didn't really feel at home just being an American. I definitely did not feel at home being a Russian. So there was this cultural void that I was looking to fill. You know, that's something we talk about all the time on all Latino, the concept of a shared Latino identity.

But in this instance, it was someone from outside of the Latino culture falling in love with Latino culture. That love happened, a transformation where I started looking more and more towards Latin American culture. And I've started wanting to learn Spanish, wanting to learn more about the culture and about the upbringing and the family ties. And I used to jokes that I want to find myself a big Latino family and just be adopted there. But things happened or they didn't happen.

And after spending just a short time together, they broke up. Felix, don't break my heart like this. When she was gone, I found myself again in this crossroads, where everything that I fell in love is suddenly it's all gone. It was like a rug being pulled from under my feet. I'm hearing a piano. I should have known we were talking about heartbreak. But the way that song reads, it's like five stages of grief.

And as a reminder, those five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. And Max says that the overall sadness of denial is in the dramatic opening chords we hear on the piano. And then we hear this. The lyrics say, I'm going to wet my lips with holy water to wash away the kisses you gave me

with your cursed mouth. Oh, sounds like anger to me. Then he says, I'm going to try to forget that you were once mine. I will carry on with hope of killing the dream of having you as the love of my life. The finality of acceptance. And then he told me something

that is exactly what you and I talk about on the show all the time, the idea of dancing your grief away. One of the things that I fell in love this, Latin music is the idea that you could take a song about suffering and turn that into a salsa. Listen to lyrics of many classic salsas and it's crazy sad and people dance to it. Wait, Felix. Are we sure this dude isn't actually Latino? It's all about the grief, Anna.

Russians love their suffering. Chekhov Dostoevsky. There is so much suffering that people sort of just revel in it in the act of suffering. And if you don't suffer, you don't live. I forgot who said this, but the idea is this pain is unavoidable, suffering is optional. And I need to mention here that Max is a very accomplished musician. He's been playing music since he was a teenager back in St. Petersburg. And he plays a lot of instruments, but mostly flute and piano.

Two instruments very common in all kinds of Latin music. Okay, I see you, Max. Right? Okay, now let's go back to the song Max Chos. Poleros and flamenco, not that common together. Honestly, I didn't think so, but Max says Russian music and flamenco and some salsa all have something in common. Seriously? Yep, check it out. One of the interesting parallels between Latin music and Slavic music is the use of an Andalusian cadence.

Some of the melodies that you hear in salsa are actually very reminiscent of melodies you would hear in Russian music. There is a very specific reason. the gypsy is Guitannos, because so much of the Russian popular music is driven by the gypsy melodies that came through Hungary and Ukraine, Romania into Russia, and the same Gitanos are bringing Lamanco melodies into Spain and Latin America. Okay, okay, I get it. He's been able to intellectualize how he thinks he connects the music, but how does he feel? How is his heart today?

Is it healed? having a last word. I mean, I hardly remember what her face looked like. But the emotions are right there. They're all accessible. And, you know, when you give so much soul to a person or where you give so much soul to an idea, it's really hard to let go. Oh, my God, Felix.

I love that story so much. That has to be one of my favorite. That's what I say after everyone we do. It's so much fun. You and me, the enthusiasts. Remember, if you have a song that really moves you, please write to us at alt.latino at npr.org. Tell us the name of the song. Give us a short little descriptor of how and why the song moves you and the story behind it. You have been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music.

Our audio producer for this episode is Simon Rettner with editorial support from Hazel Sills. Derea Muhammad is behind the knobs and boards and audio stuff. This week, she's also executive producer of NPR music. The woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chung. Our hefe in chief, it's Keith Jenkins, VP of music, and visuals. I'm Felix Contreras here in Washington, D.C. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer here in Mexico City. Thanks for listening.

Go have some tacos for me, man. Seriously.