Programm

Son Rompe Pera

Naucalpan, Estado De México- Son Rompe Pera, the marimba-smashing band of
brothers from Naucalpan who have single-handedly defined the genre ‘Cumbia Punk’
and captivated audiences around the world have released their second album,
Chimborazo, today via AYA Records. The album, named after a street in Naucalpan
where a couple of the brothers live/have lived, follows their 2020 debut Batuco, and is
also a complete departure from it. While Batuco showcases a more folkloric, traditional
sound by way of 9 covers, Chimborazo delivers 12 original tracks that fiercely shake
tradition at its roots. Much closer to what the world has come to know of the band’s wild
live shows, Chimborazo is a mix of modern cumbia, tropical dance beats, hard-hitting
punk, psychedelic guitars, traditional Mexican and Colombian rhythms, horns, and a
pinch of dub and hip hop. It’s an album that is as rebellious as it is reverent– gracefully
embracing tradition while ripping it at the seams, one marimba mosh pit at a time.
Son Rompe Pera headed to Colombia, the birthplace of Cumbia, to record the album. A
Cumbia pilgrimage of sorts, the band found it essential to take a mirror to their
knowledge of the genre to ensure that they were doing it justice. The experience,
however, ended up being much more expansive than anyone had anticipated.
Chimborazo was recorded at Mambo Negro studio over 7 days in 2022, and produced
by Colombian Producer Mario Galeano (Frente Cumbiero, Ondatrópica, Los
Pirañas). Mambo Negro is as much of a home as it is a studio, fostering a community of

musicians that wander freely through the space- many of whom ended up contributing
to the record.
The album kicks off with a classic Cumbia, interwoven with notes of Peruvian-inspired
psych, “Selva Negra,” as if offering a seamless transition from Batuco into the new era.
The record continues with “La Muerte del Amor,” an undeniably danceable ode to a
desperate unending love with a repeating chorus sung in unison that begs Regresa por
favor/estoy muriendo sin tu amor (Please come back/I’m dying without your love). The
third track on the album is “Chucha”, a song that WNYC called a ‘frantic, Ramones-like
rush of Marimbas’, that takes its name from a Chilean expletive, and is based on a
dream that Mongo (Marimba/Vocals) had about an alien abduction. It was the first single
to be released on the album, and comes alongside an otherworldly video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmHvfTeIXdI

Chimborazo also features a range of collaborations that help take the album into
unexpected territory. Mario Galeano’s band Frente Cumbiero added horns to the
album’s last track “Batuco Son”, taking one of the more traditional songs on the album
to new, stranger heights. “El Tamal”, a joyful ode to the classic comfort food common in
both Mexico and Colombia, is laced with gaita, marimba and merengue rhythms and
features a collaboration with the band La Perla, who were constant companions in the
studio. “Chico Migraña” is a dub and hip-hop leaning track that was the result of a
spontaneous meeting with rapper N. Hardem. The album’s only cover song is of a lost
Colombian gem “Toño y el Demonio” (Gustavo Rada), featuring accordion from Felipe
Orjuela. Also featured on the album is long-time collaborator, Chilean superstar Macha
(Chico Trujillo, El Bloque Depresivo) on “Chata”, as well as Chile’s Anarkia Tropikal
on the guitar-driven track “Cumbia Pa Tu Madre”. Long-time friend and world-renowned
guitarist Gil Gutierrez (Oaxaca, MX) adds a psychedelic twist to “Proteus”.
Featured on the album is a track whose name has almost become synonymous with the
band itself, their manifesto, “Cumbia Is The New Punk”. The song declares their
devotion to and reverence for the two genres often thought to be on opposite ends of
the musical spectrum, which they’ve proven can (and should) coexist countless times
via their live show- and now their album. Chimborazo is a celebration of the sounds and
their legacies that connect unassuming corners of the world, of tradition and the
necessity to mix it up in order to propel it forward, of Mexico, of Colombia, of family, of
home, of marimbas, of punk, and the party that is being alive.