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.
The end of our Milwaukee summer is fast approaching, and we’re feeling a little reflective based on all the guest hosts and great music we’ve shared with you the last few months. But the season isn’t done yet, and the new releases keep coming.
One of them is from Son Rompe Pera, a group whose song “Cumbia Is the New Pink” isn’t just a title. They find opportunities to combine the two genres through the sounds of the marimba to create an electricity and energy in their music that’s easily transmuted to the stage.
The band’s upcoming album Marimbazos de Oro will include traditional and folk sounds — something we’ve already heard in the three singles they’ve released ahead of the record’s Sept. 17 drop date. We chose “El Reecuentro” for this episode, an instrumental reinterpretation of the Andino original they heard in their youth that begins with a solo marimba before building to a full-on cumbia-andino-marimbazo track.
We also highlight a very different project from the Mexican trio Latin Mafia, who recently tapped into the positive power of the internet and social media through a team-up with English producer Fred Again.
Spending 50 hours in a Mexico City studio, they livestreamed moments of collaboration, experimentation and creative harmony, all culminating with a surprise concert in El Palacio de los Deportes hours after completing the mixtape project. You’ll hear “Te Estoy Correteando” in this episode’s playlist, a cumbia very reminiscent of the sonidero culture that exists in CDMX fused with Fred Again’s electronic background.
Episode playlist
- Girl Ultra, “Mentirasmentiras (feat. Buscabulla)”
- YENDRY, “Mala Mia”
- Sotomayor, “Vida”
- BRUSES, “RATERA”
- Princesa Alba, “Tus Estaciones”
- Matt Louis, “Juanga”
- Beele & Carla Morrison, “arena”
- Reyna Tropical & Xiuhtezcatl, “CAMINO”
- KAROL G, Judeline and rusowsky, “BbY WOW”
- Son Rompe Pera, “El Reencuentro”
- Planta Industrial, aka the darknight & saso, “Barra Payan”
- VALE, “rapido”
- Latin Mafia and Fred Again, “Te Estoy Correteando”
- Sofia Valdes, “Midnight Freak-Out”
