Tag: spanish

PLAYING DETROIT: Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas Release New Bilingual Track

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photo by: Nicholas Williams

Why fight fire with fire when you can fight fire with fuego? No one knows the power of cross-culture sound more than bilingual soul sorceress Jessica Hernandez. She and her band The Deltas have recorded a double LP, Telephone/Telefono (the same record recorded twice, in both English and Spanish), and the first set of singles, “Run Too Far/Escapar” are electrified sprints to the finish, spiced with caffeinated confidence and jittery, glittery femme fatale ferocity. What these singles solidify is that Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas have found universality in duality by embracing home and heritage while remaining committed to the signature sultry rock n’ soul they’ve been making their own for the past seven years.

Listen to the full dual tracks below and catch Lady Hernandez and her rockin’ Delta’s in a city near you.

05/21 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Eccentric
05/24 – SLC, UT @ The State Room
05/26 – Napa, CA @ BottleRock Festival
05/28 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
05/30 – Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
06/02 – Denver, CO @ Lost Lake Lounge
06/03 – Omaha, NE @ The Blackstone
06/11 – Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion *

* = WRFF Birthday Show with The Killers, Foster the People, Bleachers, Kale, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, and Marian Hill[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

ALBUM REVIEW: Helado Negro “Double Youth”

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After a slew of collaborations (Bear In Heaven, Devendra Banhart, Julianna Barwick, and others), Roberto Carlos Lange retreated inward to make Double Youth, his fourth full-length release as Helado Negro. Recorded largely in Lange’s home studio in Brooklyn, the album is constructed with simple tools: easy, percussive beats and lullaby-like vocals that swing between Spanish and English. The whole thing falls somewhere between abstract and danceable.

Double Youth‘s guiding theme–and its cover art–comes from an old poster from Lange’s childhood, which he had forgotten about until he pulled it out of the back of his closet one day, in the early stages of recording the album. The image of the two boys posing together, looking both twin-like and not, resonated with Lange. Twosomes crop up everywhere in the making and music of this album: the poster reminded Lange of the warmth of a familiar memory, but also of how far away from that memory he had come; his vocals overlap Spanish with English; the beats recall block party bass lines booming from car speakers, but they easily turn tranquil, with a delicate motif of watery arpeggios that cycles forlornly through this collection. Its components laid bare, Double Youth feels like a conversation, and a kind of imperfect twinship, between voice and computer.

The album’s front half floats by like a pink cloud: the bouncy single “I Krill You” and subsequent track “It’s Our Game” are the two catchiest songs on the collection, and Lange’s lullaby voice is like melted chocolate drizzled over the beat. But over the course of Double Youth, the music develops a huge amount of texture. By the time we get to “That Shit Makes Me Sad,” the cyclical and moody closer, melodies have grown into landscapes, and the early tracks’ sweetness subsides into a strangeness that’s still vaguely benevolent.

On September 2nd, Double Youth will waft gently down to earth, courtesy of Asthmatic Kitty Records. If you simply cannot wait that long to be soothed by smooth vocals and delighted by playful beats, you can stream the whole enchilada over at Pitchfork, in anticipation of the album’s release. Check out “I Krill You” to get a taste: