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If you weren’t aware, today is the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month, which brings up an interesting discourse. Surface level listeners may experience a kind of culture shock when they hear the Spanish language outside of the subliminally-associated genres; if it’s not cumbia, reggaeton, or traditional Latin, it might sound “out of place”. And considering English is often thought of as the international language of pop music, that’s not completely unwarranted. But honestly, it’s a language; it won’t be bound by genre constraints. So it’s important to normalize indie rock groups like Buenos Aires five-piece El Mató a un Policía Motorizado.
They dropped their eponymous debut right in the middle of the millennium-era indie explosion, and celebrate their first two decades together in 2023. One listen will tip you off to this, but imagine a Spanish-language version of The Strokes that crosses lanes into Pixies, Ramones, Weezer, Sonic Youth, and even proto-punk pioneers The Velvet Underground. El Mató a un Policía Motorizado does have a U.S. appearance tomorrow in L.A., so today’s offering is strictly a recommendation. “Yoni B” comes courtesy of El Mató’s two-time Latin Grammy nominated LP La Síntesis O’Konor, and may very well have you fire up Duolingo before diving into the rest of their discography.
