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New Year, New Music: Songs From Puerto Rico, Argentina And More

Peruvian-born musician Silvana Kane.
Courtesy of the artist
Peruvian-born musician Silvana Kane.

The first week of January always creates a strange, in-between sensation: You're still reeling from all the holiday eating and partying, and you've made a lot of New Year's resolutions you may not be able to keep (becoming a bodybuilder, never eating cake again, no longer calling your ex).

One resolution we can keep is to continue playing excellent music once a week on Alt.Latino — and to prove it, we're kicking off the year with some stunning new tracks. From Puerto Rico, we have Ileana Cabra, reinterpreting a beautiful bolero that captures the essence of Latin romantic song: the sweet torture of a romance that cannot be. If Cabra's voice sounds familiar, it's because she's the little sister of Calle 13 frontman Rene Perez Joglar, and has spent years singing the hooks for that rap duo.

We also feature a quirky new love song from an experimental Argentine group called CLDSCP, whom we've been following for some time now; its members love creating music with found objects ranging from toys to rubble. We've always been fascinated by their sound collages, and with their new album, they sound both more polished and as inventive as ever.

Here's to a musical 2013!

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La primera semana de enero siempre es extraña: aún te estas recuperando de todo lo que comiste y de las parrandas de navidad y año nuevo. Hiciste muchas promesas para el año entrante que te das cuenta tal vez no podrás cumplir (ir al gimnasio, no comer tanta chatarra, no llamar más a tu ex).

Pero aquí en Alt.Latino, tenemos una resolución de año nuevo que si podremos cumplir: seguir compartiendo música increíble con nuestras audiencias una vez por semana. Y para demostrarlo, vamos a empezar el 2013 con buena música. Desde Puerto Rico, les traemos a Ileana Cabra, reinterpretando un bello bolero que captura la esencia de la canción romántica latinoamericana: la dulce tortura del amor que jamas podrá ser. Y si la voz de Ileana les suena familiar, es porque es la hermanita de Rene Perez Joglar de Calle 13, y ha estado cantando con la banda durante años.

También esta semana tenemos una encantadora canción de amor de una banda experimental argentina que se llama CLDSCP, a quienes hemos estado siguiendo desde que comenzaron. CLDSCP se especializa en crear música con objetos encontrados que uno generalmente no usaría como instrumentos (juguetes, relojes, etc.) Siempre nos han fascinado sus esculturas sónicas- y con este nuevo album son tan creativos como siempre, pero suenan mucho mas maduros que cuando empezaron.

¡Tenemos tanto para compartir con ustedes hoy, y estamos contentos por un 2013 con buena música!

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Jasmine Garsd is an Argentine-American journalist living in New York. She is currently NPR's Criminal Justice correspondent and the host of The Last Cup. She started her career as the co-host of Alt.Latino, an NPR show about Latin music. Throughout her reporting career she's focused extensively on women's issues and immigrant communities in America. She's currently writing a book of stories about women she's met throughout her travels.