The song "Una Rosa" has been with Xenia Rubinos all her life. As a little girl, it would emanate from a wind-up music lamp in her abuelita's room, its fiber optic lights lulling her into a trance with swirling colors. Years later, it would resurface on a bootleg CD of classical music from Puerto Rico, sending her rushing to her high school's band room to try to teach it to herself on the piano. And yet again, in 2019, deep into a creative rut, staring out her apartment window at 4am and waiting for the sun to rise, the melody haunted her. It was at these distinct moments of her life--seemingly when she needed it most--that the song would come to her. Before she made the connection between this melody that had followed her all her life and Abuelita's wind-up lamp, she started writing from memory, subconsciously seeking spiritual sustenance from her ancestors in a song that was always hers, even before she knew it.
That song--and the lamp that first played it back to her--is the centerpiece of Rubinos' latest LP, also titled Una Rosa. "The image of that lamp carries so much meaning for me," she says. "It's dreamy, futuristic, nostalgic, melancholy, over the top. It's the perfect image for the music I'm making right now." That music is somewhat of a departure from her earlier work, in that it's very much "in the box"; rather than striving for pitch-perfect vocal takes and tight live instrumentation, she cut most of her vocals in a single take, writing and recording everything right on the spot and refining them after the fact. It's the most electronic music she's ever made, yet also the most spontaneous, the product of her "first mind," the thoughts on the tip of her tongue.
~~~~~~~~
Lauded by publications from Stereogum to Pitchfork to The New York Times, Xenia's latest album, Una Rosa, features some of her most complex work to date, equal parts raw emotion and electronic textures, forming a multi-layered audiovisual story in which each song reveals a portrait of a new and unique character.
Released five years after her previous album, Black Terry Cat, Una Rosa "isn't a neat bookend to the period in between, nor is it a balm or salve," says Pitchfork, who declared the album Best New Music. It's better, truer to the joy and pain of the past that flicker into the present like unwelcome thoughts."
Let me know if you'd like to attend and/or cover the show, and I'll get you sorted on our guest list. More praise for the record is below.
PRAISE FOR UNA ROSA
"In its shades of love and grief, it sounds like life as it arrives." -- Pitchfork
"rhythmically fierce, vocally generous music that slips through the net of any known genre" -- The New Yorker
Una Rosa "might be her most fully-realized and resonant release yet - though one that still refuses to adhere to musical or narrative conventions...wandering instead in an exhilarating kind of liminal space." -- Our Culture
~~~~~~~~
On her hit album Black Terry Cat, Rubinos is assisted by longtime drummer Marco Buccelli, who produced the album, and Jeremy Loucas as engineer. The three worked an average of 16-17 hours a day for five months to complete the disc which is named after "a giant black scraggly cat" that surprised Rubinos one cold night in Brooklyn. The talented singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist uses her soulful voice to traverse an array of genres from R&B to Hip-Hop to jazz and beyond, all of delivered with a New York punk-funk abandon. NPR recently included the record in their "Top 30 Favorite Albums of the Year So Far" and the song "Mexican Chef in their "100 Favorite Songs of The Year So Far."
Acclaim For Black Terry Cat:
"She's her own melting pot, and musically speaking, she pulls on enough funk, art rock, and R&B styles to match that." - Consequence of Sound
"Rubinos really has no use for sonic labels. She is clearly in a class by herself." - Bust
show less
That song--and the lamp that first played it back to her--is the centerpiece of Rubinos' latest LP, also titled Una Rosa. "The image of that lamp carries so much meaning for me," she says. "It's dreamy, futuristic, nostalgic, melancholy, over the top. It's the perfect image for the music I'm making right now." That music is somewhat of a departure from her earlier work, in that it's very much "in the box"; rather than striving for pitch-perfect vocal takes and tight live instrumentation, she cut most of her vocals in a single take, writing and recording everything right on the spot and refining them after the fact. It's the most electronic music she's ever made, yet also the most spontaneous, the product of her "first mind," the thoughts on the tip of her tongue.
~~~~~~~~
Lauded by publications from Stereogum to Pitchfork to The New York Times, Xenia's latest album, Una Rosa, features some of her most complex work to date, equal parts raw emotion and electronic textures, forming a multi-layered audiovisual story in which each song reveals a portrait of a new and unique character.
Released five years after her previous album, Black Terry Cat, Una Rosa "isn't a neat bookend to the period in between, nor is it a balm or salve," says Pitchfork, who declared the album Best New Music. It's better, truer to the joy and pain of the past that flicker into the present like unwelcome thoughts."
Let me know if you'd like to attend and/or cover the show, and I'll get you sorted on our guest list. More praise for the record is below.
PRAISE FOR UNA ROSA
"In its shades of love and grief, it sounds like life as it arrives." -- Pitchfork
"rhythmically fierce, vocally generous music that slips through the net of any known genre" -- The New Yorker
Una Rosa "might be her most fully-realized and resonant release yet - though one that still refuses to adhere to musical or narrative conventions...wandering instead in an exhilarating kind of liminal space." -- Our Culture
~~~~~~~~
On her hit album Black Terry Cat, Rubinos is assisted by longtime drummer Marco Buccelli, who produced the album, and Jeremy Loucas as engineer. The three worked an average of 16-17 hours a day for five months to complete the disc which is named after "a giant black scraggly cat" that surprised Rubinos one cold night in Brooklyn. The talented singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist uses her soulful voice to traverse an array of genres from R&B to Hip-Hop to jazz and beyond, all of delivered with a New York punk-funk abandon. NPR recently included the record in their "Top 30 Favorite Albums of the Year So Far" and the song "Mexican Chef in their "100 Favorite Songs of The Year So Far."
Acclaim For Black Terry Cat:
"She's her own melting pot, and musically speaking, she pulls on enough funk, art rock, and R&B styles to match that." - Consequence of Sound
"Rubinos really has no use for sonic labels. She is clearly in a class by herself." - Bust
The song "Una Rosa" has been with Xenia Rubinos all her life. As a little girl, it would emanate from a wind-up music lamp in her abuelita's room, its fiber optic lights lulling her into a trance with swirling colors. Years later, it would resurface on a bootleg CD of classical music from Puerto Rico, sending her rushing to her high school's band room to try to teach it to herself on the piano. And yet again, in 2019, deep into a creative rut, staring out her apartment window at 4am and waiting for the sun to rise, the melody haunted her. It was at these distinct moments of her life--seemingly when she needed it most--that the song would come to her. Before she made the connection between this melody that had followed her all her life and Abuelita's wind-up lamp, she started writing from memory, subconsciously seeking spiritual sustenance from her ancestors in a song that was always hers, even before she knew it.
That song--and the lamp that first played it back to her--is the centerpiece of Rubinos' latest LP, also titled Una Rosa. "The image of that lamp carries so much meaning for me," she says. "It's dreamy, futuristic, nostalgic, melancholy, over the top. It's the perfect image for the music I'm making right now." That music is somewhat of a departure from her earlier work, in that it's very much "in the box"; rather than striving for pitch-perfect vocal takes and tight live instrumentation, she cut most of her vocals in a single take, writing and recording everything right on the spot and refining them after the fact. It's the most electronic music she's ever made, yet also the most spontaneous, the product of her "first mind," the thoughts on the tip of her tongue.
~~~~~~~~
Lauded by publications from Stereogum to Pitchfork to The New York Times, Xenia's latest album, Una Rosa, features some of her most complex work to date, equal parts raw emotion and electronic textures, forming a multi-layered audiovisual story in which each song reveals a portrait of a new and unique character.
Released five years after her previous album, Black Terry Cat, Una Rosa "isn't a neat bookend to the period in between, nor is it a balm or salve," says Pitchfork, who declared the album Best New Music. It's better, truer to the joy and pain of the past that flicker into the present like unwelcome thoughts."
Let me know if you'd like to attend and/or cover the show, and I'll get you sorted on our guest list. More praise for the record is below.
PRAISE FOR UNA ROSA
"In its shades of love and grief, it sounds like life as it arrives." -- Pitchfork
"rhythmically fierce, vocally generous music that slips through the net of any known genre" -- The New Yorker
Una Rosa "might be her most fully-realized and resonant release yet - though one that still refuses to adhere to musical or narrative conventions...wandering instead in an exhilarating kind of liminal space." -- Our Culture
~~~~~~~~
On her hit album Black Terry Cat, Rubinos is assisted by longtime drummer Marco Buccelli, who produced the album, and Jeremy Loucas as engineer. The three worked an average of 16-17 hours a day for five months to complete the disc which is named after "a giant black scraggly cat" that surprised Rubinos one cold night in Brooklyn. The talented singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist uses her soulful voice to traverse an array of genres from R&B to Hip-Hop to jazz and beyond, all of delivered with a New York punk-funk abandon. NPR recently included the record in their "Top 30 Favorite Albums of the Year So Far" and the song "Mexican Chef in their "100 Favorite Songs of The Year So Far."
Acclaim For Black Terry Cat:
"She's her own melting pot, and musically speaking, she pulls on enough funk, art rock, and R&B styles to match that." - Consequence of Sound
"Rubinos really has no use for sonic labels. She is clearly in a class by herself." - Bust
read more
That song--and the lamp that first played it back to her--is the centerpiece of Rubinos' latest LP, also titled Una Rosa. "The image of that lamp carries so much meaning for me," she says. "It's dreamy, futuristic, nostalgic, melancholy, over the top. It's the perfect image for the music I'm making right now." That music is somewhat of a departure from her earlier work, in that it's very much "in the box"; rather than striving for pitch-perfect vocal takes and tight live instrumentation, she cut most of her vocals in a single take, writing and recording everything right on the spot and refining them after the fact. It's the most electronic music she's ever made, yet also the most spontaneous, the product of her "first mind," the thoughts on the tip of her tongue.
~~~~~~~~
Lauded by publications from Stereogum to Pitchfork to The New York Times, Xenia's latest album, Una Rosa, features some of her most complex work to date, equal parts raw emotion and electronic textures, forming a multi-layered audiovisual story in which each song reveals a portrait of a new and unique character.
Released five years after her previous album, Black Terry Cat, Una Rosa "isn't a neat bookend to the period in between, nor is it a balm or salve," says Pitchfork, who declared the album Best New Music. It's better, truer to the joy and pain of the past that flicker into the present like unwelcome thoughts."
Let me know if you'd like to attend and/or cover the show, and I'll get you sorted on our guest list. More praise for the record is below.
PRAISE FOR UNA ROSA
"In its shades of love and grief, it sounds like life as it arrives." -- Pitchfork
"rhythmically fierce, vocally generous music that slips through the net of any known genre" -- The New Yorker
Una Rosa "might be her most fully-realized and resonant release yet - though one that still refuses to adhere to musical or narrative conventions...wandering instead in an exhilarating kind of liminal space." -- Our Culture
~~~~~~~~
On her hit album Black Terry Cat, Rubinos is assisted by longtime drummer Marco Buccelli, who produced the album, and Jeremy Loucas as engineer. The three worked an average of 16-17 hours a day for five months to complete the disc which is named after "a giant black scraggly cat" that surprised Rubinos one cold night in Brooklyn. The talented singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist uses her soulful voice to traverse an array of genres from R&B to Hip-Hop to jazz and beyond, all of delivered with a New York punk-funk abandon. NPR recently included the record in their "Top 30 Favorite Albums of the Year So Far" and the song "Mexican Chef in their "100 Favorite Songs of The Year So Far."
Acclaim For Black Terry Cat:
"She's her own melting pot, and musically speaking, she pulls on enough funk, art rock, and R&B styles to match that." - Consequence of Sound
"Rubinos really has no use for sonic labels. She is clearly in a class by herself." - Bust
show less
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