The Systema Solar guys had a superb summer this year. Fresh off a North American tour that found them playing in front of huge audiences at New York City’s Summerstage and the Pan Am Games in Toronto, they celebrate their triumphant return with a brand new single, “Tumbamurallas,” which follows their 2013 album La Revancha del Burro.
This lively track, produced by Juan Carlos Pellegrino, is full of Afro-Caribbean elements that are now signature Systema Solar, especially when it comes to percussion. It feels like both a celebration and a call to protest, proposing we tear down the walls that have divided us for centuries. They chant, “Tumba muralla nadie te calla/pasa la raya vamos pa’ allá,” and we can’t help but think the single couldn’t come at a better time, right in the middle of border tensions between Colombia and Venezuela, resulting in thousands of deportations. With the song comes a stunning animated lyric video made by Vanessa Gocksch and Teo Izasa, and it really captures its spirit.