宗教歌のような荘厳な歌声をフィーチャアした"A Shot in the Dark"、ヘヴィーなビートと小気味よいパーカッションがダビーに響き渡る "A Tu Lado"、レイドバックしたサイケロック "City of Mirrors"、チルなR&Bとラテンのリズムが融合した "Palo Santo"などなど。チカーノ・バットマンら西海岸のレイドバック・サウンドと、ニコラ・クルースらオーガニック・テクノ勢が融合したような絶妙なサウンドが実に素晴らしい!
City of Mirrors is a bold new collection of music from Chicago-based alt-Latinx band Dos Santos, which is comprised of bandleader/singer/lyricist/guitarist/keyboardist Alex Chavez, drummer Daniel Villarreal, percussionist Peter “Maestro” Vale, bassist Jaime Garza, and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Nathan Karagianis.
"Bringing together the unlike pairing of an R&B groove with huapango huasteco-inspired melodies, Dos Santos proves they have the chops to make something seldom heard before.” - Remezcla City of Mirrors is a bold new collection of music from Chicago-based alt-Latinx band Dos Santos, which is comprised of bandleader/singer/lyricst/guitarist/keyboardist Alex Chavez, drummer Daniel Villarreal, percussionist Peter “Maestro” Vale, bassist Jaime Garza, and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Nathan Karagianis. Cinematic in its journey, the album was produced by multimedia artist and long-time friend of the band Elliot Bergman (NOMO, Wild Belle), and reflects sounds from across the Americas combined with Chavez’s compelling poetic narratives. Its 13 tracks consolidate the band’s unique identities, creative and cultural roots, and their penchant for honoring traditional Latinx music with contemporary compositional expressions and production techniques. It achieves the band’s mission to push against their own musical boundaries while also exploring themes of social justice, immigration, and contemporary human struggle. Chavez, a scholar who has produced albums for Smithsonian Folkways and conducted extensive ethnographic work on the music of the Texan US/Mexican borderlands (where he is from), articulates beautifully: “City of Mirrors is an assemblage… glimpses of tradition… reflections on our collective present… luminous echoes between love and solitude, hope and absurdity, euphoria and mourning. This album grapples with and transgresses these binaries because we have/and continue to cross borders. Yet, for us, the border is no metaphor — too much real staring back at us. We embody the border. We (our families) have crossed it. We (our stories) are coated with its residues. And so… we cross the border of self through our art – out of necessity.”
In addition to our Classic Black vinyl & CD, a limited-edition Azucena Dreams color vinyl version of City of Mirrors will be available to indie retailers only, for the first pressing only.
