Last month at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, WXPN and World Cafe hosted the fifth annual Nuevofest, a celebration of the new sounds of Latin alternative music, produced in association with AfroTaino Productions.
Seven bands took over the stages at World Cafe Live for a long day of music that mixed together varying musical styles including punk rock, electronic beats, mariachi, son, cumbia, salsa, and classic Cuban. Watch complete sets from Nuevofest 2018 below.
Watch Nuevofest 2018
Delaporte
Sandra & Sergio, a duo born in 2017 and known as Delaporte, has become one of the hottest electronic acts in Spain in less than a year. The pair's song "Un Jardin" is prominently featured in the hit Spanish TV show Fama, A Bailar and was the most-played song on Spotify (Spain) earlier this year. The pair has also gained acclaim by supporting Spanish tours by Bomba Estereo and electronic music legend Giorgio Moroder. Nuevofest 2018 marked Delaporte's first appearance in the United States.
Elena & Los Fulanos
Formed in 2011, the members of Elena & Los Fulanos came together on the streets of Washington D.C.'s rapidly-changing neighborhoods known as Columbia Heights and Mt. Pleasant. That's where Elena was introduced to D.C.'s mariachi, son, and punk music crowds and met her future band members. The release of the band's 2014 debut album Miel Venenosa was celebrated with shows in both Managua, Nicaragua and Washington, D.C. As a testament to the group's stature in the latter city's growing indie and international music scene, the album earned a Wammie (Washington Area Music Awards) nomination.
Femina-X
This five-piece band from San Antonio, Tx. creates unconventional fusions with electronic beats, samples, synths and live instruments. They draw musical influence from progressive tribal and ethnic dance, hip-hop, jungle, Caribbean, industrial, punk, and drum and bass. Singer Daniela Riojas' wide-ranging voice is always reaching from a place of passion, imagination and childlike playfulness. Her vision, melody, and lyrics construct the world within each song, pulling from her ability to share the deeply personal with an edge of fantasy.
Dos Santos: Anti-Beat Orquesta
Dos Santos is a quintet based in Chicago whose elastic live performances and recorded output have garnered wide attention as one of the city's most potent, impactful performance groups. The group's five members have their own storied careers in a diversity of styles: jazz, R&B, soul, traditional Mexican folk, punk, cumbia, salsa and electronica. After making its debut in May of 2013, Dos Santos has been steadily playing out in Chicago.
Very Be Careful
Two decades of ceaseless adventure and raucous times have sustained the Caribbean souls and California hearts of these Los Angelenos. The music of Very Be Careful has helped popularize the 1950s-1970s sound of Colombian vallenato and cumbia and incited tens of thousands to boogie to Colombian coastal beats. Fans have been awed by the band's concerts in clubs and at such major international events as SXSW, Germany's World Cup Tour, Chicago's Summer Dance Series, New York's Central Park Summerstage, L.A.s' Grand Performances and Sports Arena's CumbiaFest, Glastonbury Music Festival, Fuji Rock Festival and many more.
ÌFÉ
A powerfully progressive synthesis of electronic sound and Afro-Caribbean language, ÌFÉ is a bold musical project from Puerto Rico-based African American drummer/producer/singer Otura Mun. Mun, an Ifá priest — or Babalawo in the Yoruba religion — has been a vanguard artist in the Puerto Rican music scene since his arrival there in the late '90s, producing critically-acclaimed albums and songs for many of the island's most important musical voices.
Orquesta Akokán
Orquesta Akokán made its U.S. debut at Nuevofest 2018 — a big band collective of the finest musicians in Cuba, assembled and led by vocalist José "Pepito" Gómez. Akokán is a Yoruba word used in Cuba meaning "from the heart," and every song on its self-titled debut album on Daptone Records feels like a heartfelt gift from the band to the listener. It was recorded live to tape at Havana's hallowed Estudios Areito, one of the longest operating studios in the world and where many important Cuban records have been made. The arrangements carry the same exquisite beauty, pathos, and playfulness of the renowned dance orchestras of the 1940s and 1950s that recorded in that very room.
Copyright 2018 XPN
