We Speak Latin

Karen y Los Remedios Conjure Myth and Cumbia on Bestiaria

Published

1 hour ago

November 1, 2026

Karen y Los Remedios. Photo via @karenylosremedios.

Mexican trio Karen y Los Remedios have released Bestiaria, their second album, out through ZZK Records. The 12 track record runs 44 minutes and deepens the group’s signature blend of cumbia rebajada and Latin electronic music, the slowed, heavy cumbia pulse of northern Mexico stretched across synths, beats and Ana Karen G. Barajas’s commanding voice.

The trio is completed by Jonathan Muriel, known as Jiony, and Guillermo Berbeyer, known as Z.A.M.P.A. Together they build each song on Bestiaria around a female figure drawn from myth and folklore, so the album plays like a procession of archetypes, healers, spirits and creators stepping out of old stories and into the dance. Singles including Ninfa, Curandera, Satanás, Creación del Universo and Mayahuel map that world in advance, moving between the sacred and the playful without ever losing the groove underneath.

Bestiaria follows Silencio, the trio’s 2023 debut, and it arrived to immediate critical embrace: Bandcamp Daily named it Album of the Day on October 12, 2026. The record also extends a live run that has carried the group from Mexico City stages to festival bills abroad, their shows turning the slowed cumbia tempos into something close to ceremony. With Bestiaria, Karen y Los Remedios have made their most complete statement yet, an album where folklore is not decoration but structure, and where every myth walks in rhythm. Bestiaria is available now through ZZK Records. For listeners new to cumbia rebajada, it is an ideal entry point, and for longtime followers, a deepening of everything the trio does best.

We Speak Latin

The Animeros Turn Cumbia Into a Celebration on Debut Album Que Barbaro

Published

2 hours ago

November 1, 2026

We Speak Media

The Animeros. Photo via @theanimeros.

Austin trio The Animeros are having a breakthrough moment with their debut full length album Que Barbaro, released through Dan Auerbach and his Easy Eye Sound label and drawing fresh review attention this week. The mostly instrumental Latino trio formed in 2024 and quickly earned nominations as Best New Act and Best Latin Act in a poll by The Austin Chronicle, along with a slot at the Austin City Limits Festival.

Their rise carries one of the great discovery stories of the year. Auerbach, the Black Keys frontman, producer and label owner, happened to hear their cumbia music drifting down from a rooftop as he passed below during the SXSW festival. It was only their second live performance. He signed them to his Easy Eye imprint and invited the band to Nashville to record the album live in his studio.

The result is a 14 track set built on guitar, bass and percussion, with keyboards and horns making appearances along the way. Guitarist Mauro Albert Lopez leads with reverb and surf flavored playing, and the opening track Gozalo sets the tone with a Latin groove and dramatic beats. Other highlights include Uvas Negras, Cumbia de Magdelena, Ponchote de Ritmo and Mamba Mambo, while the closing ballad Al Final del Camino brings the celebration down gently.

The band name refers to older men who pray for souls in purgatory, and the group is made up of Nick Tozzo on drums and percussion, Nicolas Sanchez on bass and Mauro Lopez on guitar, per their official SXSW listing. Critics have compared their sound to the early Santana group moving toward psychedelic garage rock, and the advance buzz was strong enough for the trio to headline clubs before the album even arrived. Que Barbaro now gives new listeners a joyful entry point into modern cumbia, played live, raw and ready for the dance floor.