Xenia Rubinos: Tiny Desk Concert

Xenia Rubinos has learned a valuable lesson — "You have to know where you come from to know where you're going" — and applied it to her remarkable music. Rubinos' work contains traces of her Afro-Caribbean roots, but when she and her band do things like use two bassists to play a counter-melody in her song "Lonely Lover," they defy classification.

That's what brings me to her music: the surprises, like the unexpected change-ups she brings to the way voices are presented. It all sounds heady, even heavy, but underneath it all, she and her band lay down serious grooves designed to move both your body and your intellect.

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Set List

• "Lonely Lover"
• "Mexican Chef"
• "Laugh Clown"

Credits

Producers: Felix Contreras, Niki Walker; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Niki Walker, Nick Michael, CJ Riculan; Editor: Claire Hannah Collins; Photo: Claire Harbage/NPR.

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