Argentina

Charly García is, along with Luis Alberto Spinetta, the most influential musician in Argentinian rock history. He’s the founder of seminal bands in the ‘60s and ‘70s like Sui Generis and Serú Giran, among others. Since the ‘80s he also publishes as solo artist.

Being 66 years old, he made an album which sounds as fresh as ever, much better than previous efforts. As David Bowie did in “The Next Day”, García also brings self-references to different eras of his career and influences.

♪♫ Listen: “La máquina de ser feliz” + album stream

Charly García on Facebook, Twitter.

This is one of the most interesting debuts in the Argentinian scene of this year, coming after an EP titled “La vida en familia” and published vía Yolanda Discos.

Nine timeless songs about love and its different stages, dense textures and phantasmagoric voices make this debut an instant classic for lovers.

♪♫ Listen: “Imperial” + album stream

La vida imperial on Facebook, Instagram.

It’s the seventh album in the solo career of Andrés Ruiz, and it was published on his own label Furbo Discos (co-founded with Pablo Jubany, often labeled as “Argentinian Bowie”).

This is a particular entry in his discography because it’s, all in all, a pop album. In these songs he decides to stay away from the experimental works of previous works, and instead make his own way into the pop songs craftery.

♪♫ Listen: “Mi desconocida preferida” + album stream

Andrés Ruiz on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, www.

After a “Remixes” LP, the new path of Un Planeta was pretty clear: electronic music.

“Des”, their third album, is a nocturnal one. It could work as the soundtrack for a night full of odd experiences, smelly streets, dark and loveless alleys.

Abstract concepts, and yet danceable, this Buenos Aires based band found love in hopeless places.

♪♫ Listen: “Arriba” + album stream

Un Planeta on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Five young guys from Misiones, Argentina (a province known for its jungles and being home for the stunning Iguazú Falls) published this ode to youth.

Post-rock and dream-pop meet for gigantic and sunny melodies along nine songs. This album was first published by local label Yolanda Discos, and months later, it was also released by Chilean label Quemasucabeza,

Both labels represent remarkable curatorship work and references in the current Latin American pop.

♪♫ Listen: “Domingo” + album stream

La otra cara de la nada on Facebook, Instagram.

From Tucumán, vía Buenos Aires, Luciana Tagliapietra published this year her new album “Kawaii”.

Named after a Japanese word for “cute” or “nice”, its nine songs are rather powerful than sweet. We were used to listen to wonderful folk songs from Luciana, and this time the message and melodies are more danceable.

Maybe we can expect more songs to move our feet, because in “Kawaii” she sounds at her best.

♪♫ Listen: “Paisaje” + album stream

Luciana Tagliapietra on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

The sound, the arrangements and the lyrics in the third album by Bestia Bebé are a remarkable quality gap in their career.

Even though they sometimes deny the football theme in the songs, this imagery is still very present in their new effort “Las pruebas destructivas” (the song about Zidane says it all).

Mixing it with guitars and clear vocals, they don’t stop telling stories about friendship and youth.

♪♫ Listen: “Otro villano más” + album stream

Bestia Bebé on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, www.

Diosque is a name related to avant-garde in the Argentinian scene. That’s why when we know he’s working on a new album, it’s all about great news accompanied by high expectations.

When the album is finally out, the expectations are fulfilled and “Llanero” is not the exception: completely away of the experimental folk of his first efforts, the new album continues the electronic work started in the highly-acclaimed predecessor, “Constante”, not skipping the experimental part.

One of the guests is Julieta Venegas, the very famous Mexican pop singer-songwriter, in the song “Toca mis huesos”.

♪♫ Listen: “Nudos” + album stream

Diosque on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, www.

Post-punk is not dead: we all needed an album like this one this year. Full of darkness and melancholy, the Ian Curtis spirit is all around.

The title of one of the songs, “Caoscalma”, keeps the key to the concept of this album: the grey zones.

When the opposites get together, in Pyramides they doesn’t make light, but chiaroscuros.

♪♫ Listen: “Afuera” + album stream

Pyramides on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

It’s impossible to talk about Argentinean current scene and not mention Mendoza, a province in the West side of the country.

Simón is the leader of Perras on the Beach, maybe the latest phenomenon of meteoric rock movements. In a couple of months, they are joining big festivals and touring by all the country.

On his solo side, Simón sounds more sincere, sometimes broken, but always happy and under the influence of weeds.

♪♫ Listen: “No quiero estar tan solo” + album stream

Simón Poxyran on Facebook, Instagram.

The album cover says it all: this is a collage album – the artwork was also made by Fonso himself.

The main resource of his new album is the sampling. For example, some pieces of a Rihanna song and sounds from Boca Juniors stadium get together in the same track.

27 songs, 90 minutes: this isn’t an easy album, but it’s worth the trip. Funk, pop, rap, rock, tango, R&B, electronic and some hints to classic ‘80s and ‘90s mainstream songs sounds in this curious experiment.

♪♫ Listen: “Cuento las horas” + album stream

Fonso on Facebook, Instagram.

The title of the new Morbo y Mambo album is clear: “Muta” (the Spanish for “mutate”) is their biggest change to date.

Their third album is the first one with vocals (except for some isolated stuff, they never recorded vocals before), but it keeps their afro-beat sounds, so danceable in the summer nights in Buenos Aires.

For the vocals, they called a couple of friends: Santiago Motorizado (leader of Él mató a un policía motorizado, #1 in this list), Nick Albrook (from Australian band Pond) and Andrés Nusser (from Chilenean band Astro).

A celebrated change.

♪♫ Listen: “Pomán” + album stream

Morbo y Mambo on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, www.

Paula Trama is the composer of the six songs included in “Helados Verdes”, the newest album she published with her band Los Besos.

The poetry of her songwriting gets better and better, with songs like “Helados verdes” or “Turmalina”, or the heartbreaking vals “Offline”.

The EP starts very powerful and it takes less than 30 minutes to fall in love and play it all over again.

♪♫ Listen: “Helados verdes” + album stream

Los Besos on Facebook, Instagram.

Again Mendoza province. Again very young boys. Again a very quick ascension. The second album of Usted Señálemelo doesn’t have a clever name (“II”), but instead they leave the songs speaking for themselves.

Clearly more mature and unmistakably contemporary, Usted Señálemelo do not repeat formulas and choose to go beyond.

♪♫ Listen: “Big Bang” + album stream

Usted Señálemelo on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Fear and Loathing in Buenos Aires streets. “Agua ardiente” is the third album of Los Espíritus, one of the projects of Maxi Prietto (from Prietto Viaja al Cosmos con Mariano, band from 10 years ago linked to La Plata movement), an all-time poet.

Mystic and lisergic blues, timeless psychedelia combined with a sound very Río de la Plata-esque, drives Los Espíritus to become one of the most important indie bands in just a couple of years.

♪♫ Listen: “Jugo” + album stream

Los Espíritus on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Luca Bocci is another ambassador from the Mendoza province, and from all the bands emerged there in the last months, he maybe is the one with more Latin American projection.

His debut album, “Ahora”, sounds like big albums from the “rock nacional” that conquered the continent in the ‘80s and ‘90s, like Fito Páez, Charly García, or Los abuelos de la Nada.

Sweet and millenial, authentic and emotional.

♪♫ Listen: “Ahora” + album stream

Luca Bocci on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, www.

She made it again: our beloved “witch” published her seventh album and the enchantment is very strong. It stays for days.

Not like her predecessor “Wed 21”, “Halo” is definitely more abstract and introspective. That’s a very curious decision, because critic and audience were in love with her “new” accesibility.

For “Halo”, she chooses to lock again, and the result is hard to decipher, but it’s her magic that makes all the work. “Halo” sounds innovative and personal, like every of her albums.

♪♫ Listen: “Cosoco” + album stream

Juana Molina on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, www.

Argentinian indie scene is living the best time of the history, and many things that today happens are, in part, due to the work of bands like Él mató a un policía motorizado.

With a career that spans more than a decade (but curiously still labeled as an ‘ascending’ band), their fanbase keeps growing and it goes beyond the music. It’s a cultural phenomenon.

“La síntesis O’Konor” arrived 5 years after the last LP, and that’s a lot of time for music, and it’s a lot of time for current era.

It’s their third LP, sounds powerful and emotional, more complex in terms of sounds, the voice clearer, the words still so magnetic.

♪♫ Listen: “El tesoro” + album stream

El mató a un policía motorizado on Facebook, Twitter, www.