Art by Stephany Torres for Remezla
We are living through an era where more music is available to us than ever—whether it be via social media, streaming, or apps. But despite this wealth of options, it can be difficult to cut through the industry hype, the homogenizing algorithms, and find something new and exciting. In our weekly Nuevo Noise playlist, you’ll find some of our favorite releases of the week.
Follow our Nuevo Noise playlists featuring these tracks and more on Apple Music and Spotify.
Sometimes la mala vida is the only way to get by and becomes the only life you know. Argentina rising trap star Nicki Nicole dedicates her new song to the lifestyle, linking hip-hop grit with R&B-infused pop beats and hooks coming down on you like a bad streak kicking you when you’re down. Part celebration, part confession; “Mala Vida” is more than anything a proclamation. –Marcos Hassan
Up-and-coming Dominican singer Letón Pé is back with a brand new single that could potentially make our lonely nights even harder. Produced and co-written by Diego Raposo, “Me Provoca” is a warm pop jam with flavorful percussion and easy guitar ornaments where Pé is absolutely going insane waiting for a love interest to make a move as she daydreams about locking lips. –Cheky
Following her previous single “La Mentalista,” Cuban artist La Dame Blanche has now dropped the second single from her upcoming TBA album. Conjuring classic Afro-Cuban sounds and meaty electronic production, “La Maltratada” is an empowering battle cry where La Dame Blanche echoes the strength and dignity of domestic violence survivors. Far from being a sad song, this is a call to exit abusive relationships. –Cheky
Las Luces Primeras is a rising star of Argentina’s neo-psych wave. He recently unleashed his luminous third studio album Savia Roja, which was recorded entirely over 5 months of pandemic confinement. The album bursts with twangy guitars and textured organ melodies. One of the more playful cuts comes in “Toxi,” a bouncy vintage earworm about rejecting rampant toxicity from people and the world, while simultaneously lampooning its overuse as a hollow zeitgeist buzzword. –Richard Villegas
Over the past few years, Dominican singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bonnet has been cooking up a signature sound colliding elements of modern classical, ambient and post-rock, while never fitting neatly into any category. His latest release is “Depende de Mí,” a cathartic maelstrom of guitar, violin, chamber vocals and a heart thumping rap from NZA 333, where a romance begins to shift from proverbial stomach butterflies to a relationship requiring diligence and sacrifice. It’s a mature gray area of love seldom explored in our top-40 obsessed world, yet Bonnet dives in with nuance and grace. –Richard Villegas
When you strive to be unique, you run the risk of getting too caught up in indulging ideas that you don’t translate them for others to enjoy. That’s something that shouldn’t worry Cuernavaca, Mexico’s Teresa Corral. Built from a jazzy R&B backdrop that ascends to the heavens in an almost new age way, “Veneno” has ambition to spare, but Corral’s vocals are grounded to reflect naked earnestness, making the emotions all the more palpable. –Marcos Hassan
Psychedelic music and cumbia go together grandly like a cosmic coyote roaming the universe in search of eternal wisdom. Tucson’s Xixa is the latest band to reconfigure the chemistry of these two genres, using fuzz-heavy guitars and percussion that brings to mind the insistence and groove of chicha. “Genesis of Gaea” is lush and orchestral, invoking a cosmology where Latin American rhythms lead you to enlightenment. –Marcos Hassan
In case you need to celebrate Halloween early, Colombia’s Teatro Unión has you covered. Synth basslines and gated drums give way to bright and chiming guitars to counterbalance the sinister vibes. Baritone vocals set the mood in brutish form but give melodic seduction for days. If this wasn’t enough, “Data” takes flight in operatic fashion, setting our minds to another dimension. –Marcos Hassan
Lucrecia Dalt’s new album for RVNG Intl., No Era Sólida, is filled with compositions that are both eerie and captivating, and “Ser Boca” is one of the best examples. The song is a menacing cloud of otherworldly energy, pierced by the Berlin-based Colombian artist’s melodies formed by made-up words, manipulated both digitally and in the way she performs them. That was one weird dream. –Cheky
https://open.spotify.com/track/4rU6PqKRLkzbd6PVDjHBJk?si=rl13nr9uSYeamqScBD7YcA
La Favi paired up with producer Dinamarca to deliver two new tracks that have us teary-eyed and slow-dancing alone in the dark. One of them, “Sana Sana,” finds the San Francisco artist singing the popular healing tune to soothe herself, as she looks for solace while trying to deal with the past. (Oh, and she’s definitely team “colita de rana,” in case you were wondering.) –Cheky
Raised in a musical home, the arts were always in the cards for Késia Estácio. Estácio is a Brazilian singer and actress who first gained national attention with her appearance on The Voice Brazil, in 2012. Her journey has been a steady course of blossoming and exploration, with her latest single “Clima de Prazer” feeling like a eureka moment for the nimble R&B chanteuse, oozing with raw longing for touch and intimacy that has grown all too familiar in 2020. –Richard Villegas
El Salvador’s small but exceedingly talented underground is at its finest when inter-scene rivalries are put aside and collaboration is allowed to flourish. Such is the case of Planeta 23, a new band convening musicians from the worlds of pop, rap and rock for a prismatic project harkening to the electropop fantasies of Belanova. Their euphoric debut single “Nadie Más” is all about dropping the baggage of past relationships and allowing your heart to fly freely; an empowering message delivered over soaring chorus vocals and shimmering synth melodies. –Richard Villegas
