KCRW’s Global Beat is a series highlighting emerging artists from around the world. Our second season takes us to México, hosted by KCRW DJ Raul Campos alongside our curators, Mexico City DJ and music supervisor Junf, director of Festival NRMAL Moni Saldaña, and NPR’s Betto Arcos.
Ready your finest footwear to gaze upon as we welcome Festival NRMAL director Moni Saldaña into the mix of Global Beat: México’s curators. Saldaña has been embedded amongst México’s most progressive, underground music communities for the past 14 years. We anticipate an onslaught of hidden gems from her over the next few weeks.
This week’s haul only makes that anticipation grow stronger as Saldaña introduces the tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek antics of Sgt. Papers, the debut solo work from Myuné (previously of the excellent Mexico City-based shoegazers Mint Field), and supergroup iiis consisting of members of Petite Amie and Little Jesus.
Check out the full conversation via the link above, read on for more about each artist, and absolutely do not sleep on the music videos this week.
Sgt. Papers - “Échale Campeón”
The goofy, hard-charging garage rock of this track is the aural equivalent of a double shot of especially potent espresso. It brings with it the same giddiness-inducing qualities, and the same slight feelings of uncertainty around where to expend all of the excess energy. Then again, when you’re having this much fun, who cares?
Saldaña describes Sgt. Papers as “one of the most amazing bands to see live.” She knew that she wanted to lead her segment with them for this reason, and for those of us who might not be able to see them in concert anytime soon, she insists that we immediately put eyes on the extremely tongue-in-cheek video for “Échale Campeón” as a fine consolation prize.
Myuné - “Boni Naitó”
All hail… shoe-lectro-gaze?? Yeah, we’ll keep workshopping that one. Lack of appropriate genre monikers aside, this song is hauntingly gorgeous, and endlessly engrossing.
Saldaña refers to Myuné as one of her current favorite artists. Hailing from Tijuana, the multi-instrumentalist plays guitar, bass, piano and theremin — using her prowess to craft complex and immersive music designed to engage all of the senses. Extra credit: Carve out some time for Myuné’s previous project, the pure dreamscape of Mint Field.
iiis - “Nada Es Real (Feat. Aline Terrein)”
Whom amongst us can resist a supergroup? Particularly one boasting the pedigree of iiis (pronounced aye aye ayes) — a perfect blend of left of the dial ethos with plenty of name recognition for the KCRW crowd. Composed of the team behind Arts & Crafts México, alongside members of Petite Amie, Little Jesus and Rey Pila, this group of instrumentalists is fairly new to the scene but they have big plans to release many singles featuring a rotating cast of guest vocalists.
We couldn’t have asked for a better intro than “Nada Es Real” (nothing is real) – a swirling haze of psychedelia featuring bewitching vocals from Petite Amie’s Aline Terrein.
Saldaña finds herself particularly taken with iiis’ spirit of collaboration. “This is a very experimental project in terms of just getting to the studio and putting ideas into songs,” Saldaña says. “I really love that fun aspect of it.”
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