Mexico City’s Karen y Los Remedios are the sort of cumbia band who can confidently claim ownership to their own creative lane – constantly reinventing while keeping it rooted in their personal and familial background, like on their new album, Bestiaria, released Oct. 9 via ZZK Records.
Before their formation, members Ana Karen G. Barajas (vocals) and Jonathan “Jiony” Muriel (keys) first met in 2009 and began making music almost 10 years later, in 2016. At the time, the two were primarily making shape-shifting electronic music for Muriel’s VAA label that was also home to future member Guillermo Berbeyer (guitar).
Like many artists and bands who got their start at the beginning of the decade, Karen y Los Remedios came together as a trio with the addition of Berbeyer in the wake of the pandemic. For Barajas, she was studying in China and turned to cumbia as the thread back home to Mexico. Soon after, they released two of their best known singles, “Canario” and “Presagio.” Although they previously experimented with electronic production in the past, Karen y Los Remedios found the three fusing cumbia with elements of trip-hop.
From the get-go, their experiment paid off, with the hypnotic percussion on “Presagio” and the woozy, bass-heavy “Canario” all tying together under the guidance of Barajas’ spectral voice. But more impressive is how Karen y Los Remedios balanced between the gleeful strangeness similar to other genre-bending bands like Hiatus Kaiyote with the growing accessibility of the broader Latin trap movement.
Ahead of Bestiaria, Karen y Los Remedios is looking at topics as personal as they are universal. Specifically Barajas’ own memories and Mexico’s relation to healing, religion, rituals, and so on.
On the inspiration behind their recent single, “Curandera” — which was featured in Grimy Goods’ Best New Songs of the Month column — Barajas said, “This song is dedicated to my grandma and my aunt Elena. It brings me back to those days when they tried to help me feel better, through homemade cleansing rituals…The song also connects to my healing journey; staying grounded, listening to my body, letting go of old pleasures, and committing to becoming my own ‘curandera.'”
That certainly comes out through the single and its accompanying music video. At the same time, the band remains true to their fusion of cumbia with other genres, whether it be electronic instrumentation boosting the already tried-and-true groove or the dance music approach to a song about healing practices.
But more importantly, Karen y Los Remedios let the music draw you in like a spell while the actual songwriting hits you emotionally, hitting on all the beats they set out to hit. Considering the precedent they already set with Silencio, Bestiaria is likely to continue their streak.
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