Every week, La Alternativa delivers the very best from the Latin alternative scene by curating a blend of emerging and established artists within the Latin diaspora, while providing a platform to champion our growing local music scene. Listen on demand here and on 88Nine from 10-11 p.m. every Wednesday.
Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso are a trip. Since their viral Tiny Desk, sold out shows around the world and a stack of Latin Grammys, they’ve been moving fast. Maybe too fast. And you can feel that all over this new era.
Their latest project, Free Spirits, leans into that pressure. It’s chaotic and playful, but there’s something real underneath it all. Burnout. Fame hitting too quickly. Questions about getting older, being forgotten and what it even means to “make it.”
The whole album is built around this surreal concept of the “Free Spirits Wellness Center” — a fictional space where you go to reset your mind, your body, your identity. Think brainwave helmets, fake therapy treatments and emotional detoxing, all wrapped in humor and absurdity.
That brings us to the wildest collab of 2026: Ca7riel, Paco Amoroso and Jack Black on a track called “Goo Goo Ga Ga.” Yeah, it’s exactly what you think. The sounds a baby makes before language fully forms. But that’s the point.
The song plays with the idea of wanting to start over. To go back. To be young again. To escape the pressure and just exist before everything got complicated. And while the video feels playful on the surface, it’s set inside that same “wellness center” world — hospital beds, experimental machines, helmets reading brainwaves. It almost feels like they’re trying to reboot themselves in real time.
These two can sound punk, hip-hop, tropical and completely unserious while sneaking in something existential. It’s a pleasure having them in this episode.
Episode playlist
- MissLupe, “Haciendo Saturar”
- Sotomayor, “Si Te Vas”
- J Noa & Lowlight, “Traficando rap”
- Angélica Garcia, “BUTTERFLY”
- Los Mirlos & Bomba Estereo, “Eres Mentiroso”
- Niko Rubio, “30 Mil Pies”
- Simon Grossman, “Te Hice Un Reggae”
- Not For Radio, “Vueltas”
- More, “En Tercera Persona”
- Kei Linch, “ya no estás”
- Bad Bunny & The Marias, “Otro Atardecer”
- Cain Culto ft Jarina de Marco, “Chismosa”
- CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso & Jack Black, “GOO GOO GA GA”
- Humbe, “CARRUSEL”
- RAMSI, “Montaña”
