Las Palabras - Fe [LP]

La Castanya

£19.42

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: LC102LP
Barcode: 7508304662366
Release Date: 13 Dec 2024
Genre: Singer-Songwriter/ Latin Alternative/Indie

Las Palabras is the solo project of New Yorker Rafael Cohen, of Mexican roots and member of !!! (Chk Chk Chk).

Album mixed by Adrian Quesada, guitarist and founder of Black Pumas.

The album features Angélica Garcia (Partisan Records) and Σtella (Sub Pop Records).

RELATED TO: Helado Negro, Devendra Banhart, Tim Bernardes, Adrián Quesada, Black Pumas, Angélica Garcia, Jorge Ben, Caetano Veloso, !!! (Chk Chk Chk).

Rafael Cohen’s Spanish-language solo project Las Palabras gives the D.C. punk scene veteran and member of dance-rock group !!! (Chk Chk Chk), the words to reveal himself as a Latin alternative artist and what he calls “a cautious believer”. Fe, [Faith] his second Las Palabras album, and first on the Barcelona label La Castanya, “deals with what it means to have faith, what it means to have doubts, and what it means to stay open to the idea that something untouchable and unknowable may exist”.
Written and produced by Cohen in his home studio in Brooklyn and mixed by Black Pumas guitarist Adrian Quesada, Fe builds on nylon-string guitar and electric bass with live drums and synthesizers in songs that embrace elements of 70s Brazilian funk and an amalgam of beats from hip hop to bachata, interspersed with contemplative ballads on which Cohen’s voice and guitar can be quiet enough to hear the rumble of a bus going by in the background.

“Fe” is colored by musical influences that include those Brazilian grooves, but also shades of Sade, Sounds of Blackness and eighties electro funk group Zapp. The arrangements spotlight the rhythm section, with drums played by Chris Egan (!!!, Solange, Blood Orange) and featuring Alberto Lopez (LCD Soundsystem, Stanley Clarke) on percussion. Cohen credits Adrian Quesada for the album’s warm, worn-in tone: “He made the beats sound a lot bigger and gave it an ’80s hip hop feel. He really understood the references and brought his background in Latin music to it”.

Track listing: 1. Escudo y Espada 2. La Misma Luna (feat. Angélica Garcia) 3. De Nuevo Otra Vez 4. El Año del Dragón (feat. Σtella) 5. No se Puede 6. La Catarata 7. También
8. Espejismo 9. Por qué 10. Fe