Alt.Latino Playlist: Old And New Friends

Listen to this playlist on Spotify or Apple Music.

This week we offer a world premiere of a video by a brilliant Brazilian artist and a song by a break-out norteño artist, plus new music from an Alt.Latino fave and some shimmering pop. Something for everyone with a taste for musical exploration.

Ed Maverick, "nadie va a pensar en ti mejor que yo (en vivo)"

At just 18 years old, Chihuahua-born singer Eduardo Hernández Saucedo, better known as Ed Maverick, has already become one of the more viral Latinx artists on Spotify this year. His 2018 debut EP mix pa llorar en tu cuarto has been certified Gold in Mexico, and its lead single "Fuentes de Ortiz" has racked up 64 million streams on Spotify. In just over six months, the video has gained 33 million views on YouTube.

His power lies in his full baritone, norteño authenticity, and commitment to laying emotions typically discouraged of male, Latino public expression bare. His latest release, "nade va a pensar en ti mejor que yo," is his first live one, performed before a crowd of young Latinos in Mexico City who already can sing along. Still a teenager, Ed Maverick's released one of 2019's most tender love songs. — Stefanie Fernández

MOMO., "Arte (Tom Biller Remix)"

MOMO. is one of those artists that is from a place, but is so much more than that place. Marcelo Frota is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, but those identifiers only scratch the surface of the power of his vision.

"Arte" originally came out in 2013, but this week we premier an accompanying video and remix takes it to another level. The haunting quiet of the original is displaced by electronics, but the sense of inward retrospection doesn't change with the additional sounds. The multi-platform release illustrates that if MOMO. wasn't on your musical radar before, he should be now. — Felix Contreras

Xenia Rubinos, "Diosa vs Bugeisha"

On her double single "Diosa vs. Bugeisha" Xenia Rubinos works a minimalist aesthetic drenched in electronics. "Diosa" felt like a chant and then I read this from her:

"'DIOSA' is a track I'd had in mind for a long time," she writes in a press release. "The hook is what I envisioned myself chanting to a friend or a woman I admired to encourage her to keep going and to feel in her power. Diosa (goddess), Reina (queen), Chula (hottie), Bella (beautiful) - I envisioned women getting ready, looking themselves in the mirror, dancing solo in their rooms- it's an anthem to hype yourself up and start something." — Felix Contreras

Tei Shi, "No Juegues"

Colombian-Canadian artist Valerie Teicher has long made soft electronic-pop that hits hard under the moniker of Tei Shi. Her first album, 2017's Crawl Space, was a meditation on fear; La Linda follows it with an embrace of the first small steps toward healing. "No Juegues" is a two-part track, an acoustic ballad until it becomes a spare electronic progression. "Dicen por ahí / Querer sin sufrir / No vale nada," Teicher sings of a love defined by suffering. "Ya eso lo aprendí / Y ahora junto a ti / Mi amor no vale nada," she responds to herself, piercing the axiom to its especially fraught subtext. The lyric is suffused with that remembered pain, and yet the song plays it with a muted-ness that sounds a lot like distance. — Stefanie Fernández

Rodrigo y Gabriela, "Battery"

Mettavolution just got a Grammy nomination for best contemporary instrumental album, but this new single from Rodrigo y Gabriela's next album shows their creativity is seemingly unstoppable. It's a perfect example of how they bridge genres with a Metallica cover played with precision on their acoustic guitars. — Felix Contreras

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