Weekly Music Roundup: Nia Archives, Orville Peck, and Orquesta Akokán

Photo of Nia Archives – Emotional Junglist by Island Records

This week, new takes on old sounds from Nia Archives, Orville Peck, Orquesta Akokan, and Cinder Well.  And Lido Pimienta’s surprise inspiration.

Nia Archives Is The “Emotional Junglist”

The English DJ and singer/songwriter Nia Archives has just released her keenly-anticipated second album.  Emotional Junglist is a title that refers to the way she writes songs that follow the arc of falling in and out of love, and then sets them to the skittering, broken beats of the 1990s UK dance styles known as jungle and drum and bass.  It’s a fascinating combination – the often heart-on-sleeve emotions of a song like “Lovers Grief” is one of several tracks on the album that seems to draw from aughts-style indie rock, only to get an unexpected jolt from the anxious breakbeats behind it.  (Another song, “Boys In Blue,” is probably more accessible and hook-y simply because it features more conventional rock drumming.)  “Lovers Grief” isn’t done there, though; Nia Archives also layers her vocals to create sultry R&B harmonies, especially in the song’s chorus.  

Orville Peck Is Not On The New Orville Peck Song

Orville Peck, the masked, openly gay country star, is still finding ways to upend expectations. He announced his new album, Mule, and accompanied the announcement with the release of the opening track, “Prologue (Eulogy of a Man Turned Mule).”  It is an a cappella song, just three voices – none of them Peck. So if it doesn’t have his Roy Orbison-like vocals, you may be wondering why you should even care if he releases a fifty-second-long song that sounds like a folk hymn from the late 1800s. The answer is: Emmylou Harris, Noah Cyrus (Miley’s kid sister), and Allison Russell. Three generations of gifted singers, coming together like the Three Fates in the film O Brother Where Art Thou, show how much weight Peck carries in music circles these days.   

Mule comes out on September 18. 

More Classic Mambo from Cuba’s Orquesta Akokan

Orquesta Akokan is a band, mostly based in Havana, that keeps alive the sounds of Cuban mambo, boogaloo, and cha cha cha – but rather than being an exercise in nostalgia, the group’s songs reflect the sounds of jazz and soul, and topics like immigration and cultural identity. On their last album, the band unveiled its new lead singer, Kiko Ruiz; now, on their new album America!, Ruiz returns, but so does a potent lineup of female voices. Carolina Oliveros of Combo Chimbita, Mireya Ramos of Flor de Toloache, and the Venezuelan-Moroccan singer Miriam Elhajli all lend their voices to the new record. But it’s Ruiz who’s front and center on “Mami Que Que,” a fun, horn-filled expression of man’s eternal question when it comes to women: “what? What does she want?” 

Lido Pimienta Channels Caribbean Music, And Enya, On New LP

Colombian-born, Canada-based singer Lido Pimienta writes songs that celebrate Latina culture in general, but also the specific culture of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. So it’s a bit of a surprise to learn that she is a fan of Enya, the reclusive Irish singer whose ethereal brand of New Age pop made her a global star in the 80s and 90s. We learn that from the title of Pimienta’s new album, Caribenya, a portmanteau of “Caribe” and “Enya.” The influence seems to stem from Enya as a woman who made her own way in the music industry, rather than her actual sound. Because this is very much a Lido Pimienta album, full of statements of cultural pride and feminine spirit, and the track “Toxica” delivers that message over a lilting cumbia beat.  

Cinder Well’s New Songs Have Old Souls

Cinder Well is the work of Amelia Baker, an LA-based singer/songwriter who spent a few years living on the west coast of Ireland, soaking in the sound and the feeling of Irish folk song. Her new album, A Blooming Body, has melodies that sound like they’ve been around for centuries, and even lyrics that place events in our time (in this song, vodka shots and a laptop) feel timeless somehow. “Beyond The Pale” is in one sense a sonic outlier, since it has bass and drums joining Cinder Well’s guitar and fiddle – the result sounds like Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac covering an old ballad – but it is also a typically understated, pensive affair, full of regret. The album title is a lyric in the song.