KEXP and Ruidosa Present the Multidimensional Spectrum That is Kali Uchis Albina Cabrera
As a South American living in the United States, I have different references in regards to notions of the North-South divide. As a woman and music lover, I have a very clear image of our place on the musical stages of the world throughout the years. As a Latin American music journalist, I have been feeling a passionate attraction towards the history of the new generation of female artists who,
Sin Miedo, are reinventing the rules of the game. This continental team is creating music that is already part of the history that we will read about in the future, and they are doing it in a present where it is essential to use every existing platform of expression to nurture ideas of freedom and a sense of identity that escapes the monolithic.
Hello dear Music Clubbers!
I’m writing from pandemically wrecked Nashville, at the moment I put fingers to keyboard the epicenter of the worldwide pandemic. Which, as you can imagine, has me cringing in a corner when I’m not lashing out, virtually, about the deep cultural crises that have pushed America, and particularly its various heartlands, here. (I recommend the two trenchant albums the Drive-By Truckers released this year if you want to know more about that.) Yet as I place my latest order for curbside-pickup groceries and anticipate my daily dog-led three-mile walk virtually my only venturing forth since March I’m seized with the perverse desire to not mourn but to celebrate one aspect of this hellish year. Inspired in part, Lindsay, by your generous reading of Bob, Bruce, and Tay’s polishings of their own iconic facades, I’d like to declare 2020 the Year of Archival Awakenings: a time when, despite or maybe even in dialectical tension with the politically motivated
photo by Jora Frantzis
This year has been a monumental mountain of shit, but we cannot deny that it has been unforgettable in terms of great album releases. You can see my Top 10 Latin Albums of 2020 here. Generally, I like to talk about specific songs that I have been listening to with love and fanaticism, like one who clings to a lifeboat in the middle of the neverending ocean known as 2020. This time, however, the lifeboat was transformed into a cruise ship with wings, stunning colors, and Kali Uchis as captain. An absolute dream!
It is the latest album by the singer and songwriter who was raised between Virginia and Colombia, her second LP and first project in Spanish. It leaves me feeling as though I am in a dream with her as the protagonist and saving angel of my lost spirit in the bottom of the sea.