Video: Y La Bamba - "My Love Is A Forest Fire"

The newest edition of Filter Magazine raved Y La Bamba’s new album Lupon (produced by The Decemberists’ Chris Funk), calling it “a collection of hazy, whispering ballads steeped in polarizing art-folk and sacred Mexican lore.” The band leaded by the beautiful (and very tall) Luz Elena Mendoza captivated our ears last year with her collection of home-recorded demos released as Alida St. Elena’s soulful voice and religious codified lyrics are especially shining in the band’s newest single “Juniper.” Here is a striking video of the band playing “My Love is a Forest Fire”, it’s beautifully painful. The new album includes two of our favorite songs from them, “Isla de Hierva Buena” and “Soy Capitan.”Lupon is technically, their debut album, out on September 28 through Tender Loving Empire.

MP3: Y La Bamba - "Juniper"

Portland’s indie folk band, Y La Bamba, fronted by the prolific Luz Elena Mendoza, has created yet another visionary piece with their latest, “Juniper.” The song, about Mendoza losing her Catholic faith, is a poignant and haunting tale told in Mendoza’s heart-wrenching voice. Loss of faith is such a powerful, life-altering experience because it literally changes everything. It is difficult to do justice to such a deeply transformative event, but Y La Bamba does, and beautifully so. In just the first few lines (“My temple has been compromised/ I was meant to rise/ six feet above my bed”) you are already shaken to your core by the raw emotion of the lyrics and vocals. And it only builds from there, so that at the end you have to remember to exhale.

“Juniper” is off of Y La Bamba’s latest album, Lupon, produced by Chris Funk of The Decemberists and due out September 28.

♫♫♫ "Juniper"

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JANUARY. BEST ALBUMS & SONGS

The best music of 2009 so far: Part of December ('08) & January Releases:

ALBUMS
01. ALIDA ST. Y LA BAMBA (REVIEW)
02. BAILAR Y LLORAR. TELERADIO DONOSO (REVIEW)
03. KATY. MR. RACOON (REVIEW)
04. RUDO Y CURSI SOUNDTRACK. VARIOUS
05. NEGRO FLU0. NEGRO FLUO (REVIEW)
06. AI CON PERMISITO. MENUDA COINCIDENCIA
07. FAMILY REUNION. UNSEXY NERD PONIES (REVIEW)
08. EL FENOMENO. ARCANGEL (REVIEW)
09. YELLOW YESTERDAY. YELLOW YESTERDAY (REVIEW)
10. FUCK HER OR THE TERRORISTS WIN. FUCK HER OR THE TERRORISTS WIN

SINGLES
01. “AZUL”. NATALIA LAFOURCADE
02. “OTRA SUERTE”. ENTRE RIOS
03. “ALIDA ST”. Y LA BAMBA
04. “HIEDRA VENENOSA”. MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND
05. “ERAMOS TODOS FELICES”. TELERADIO DONOSO
06. “INGENUO”. EN VENTURA
07. “NADA”. ZOE
08. “LA LLUVIA”. NEGRO FLUO
09. “BAILE FRIK”. FRIKSTAILERS
10. “SON BEREJU”. CHOC QUIB TOWN

Alida St, Y La Bamba

ALIDA ST., Y LA BAMBA
Gypsypop Records, U.S. ****1/2
Rating: 92
By Carlos Reyes

Y La Bamba is the project of Luz Elena Mendoza, a mexican-american based in Portland Oregon, points up to Frida Kahlo and Javier Solis as big inspirations of her art, Adeila St. is her debut album. This is an astonishingly confident breakthrough with a precise scope in its angelical vocals and the revelatory lyricism which is evocative and religiously codified. With huge possibilities to succeed in the world music circuit, it’s also a charmingly catchy album that should be able to overpass its folk and break into the pastoral side of the melodramatic popular song. It might be a difficult digest for the purists, but we find a groundbreaking vision in full command by its author. Production-wise it lacks glossiness, but rather than it working against her, this collection of home recordings bring out emotional depth through atmospheric surroundings, where there is space for the listener to refill the sound bites of space. In a song like “Isla de Hierva Buena” she embraces the music of her parents, results in one of those songs that is able to breathe culture even with its funky vocalization. It goes even further with “Las Aguas Venenosas” which carries with it the colorful search of her roots, this gets into the ranchero fields and really strikes for glory. First and lead single “Alida St.” brings out a fascinating factor here, it’s soulful essence and that elevates the intimate exercise and positions it into easy-listening moments of pure joy. It brings back the basics of Brian Wilson or the more contemporary India Arie. The soon-to-be single “Fasting in San Francisco” frees itself from any pretentiousness; its bouncy design is quite seductive and one song that could transcend into mainstream if, say the iPod marketing was to come along. Interesting enough, the album is surrounding by a spiritual layer that gives the album an elegant roundness. “Worshiping intelligence, leading to spiritual ignorance, doesn’t it hurt?”, it’s conditioned as an edgy project in the likes of the melancholy beauty of Devendra Banhart or Beirut. Stream the whole album in the following player.

♫♫♫ "Alida St."
buy it @ amazon.com
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