My DJ crate of Latin ATX vinyl deepens by the day. Thumb through any number of Adrian Quesada spins, three Money Chicha platters, and El Combo Oscuro’s dark horse cumbias. Debut long-player ¡Qué Bárbaro! now shoots the Animeros to the front of the stack. Discovered by Black Keys mogul Dan Auerbach one SXSW when their set wafted down to him from atop Sixth Street, the homegrown trio seeps in the same waters as the locals and a growing international contingent including Colombia’s BALTHVS and Switzerland’s Hermanos Gutierrez. In Abya Yala, traditional and contemporary remain one through line. Live-wire axe whisperer Mauro Lopez, Superfónicos bassist Nicolas Sánchez, and drum lord Nick Tozzo stir South American chicha, cumbia, and psicodélica into a potent trago. “Gózalo” opens with a party anthem GOAT like a Latin version of the Coca-Cola theme – “I’d like to buy the world a Mexican Coke with real sugar.” Indigenous percussion, cantina choruses, and stinging guitar bite the lime. Next, “Terlingua” infuses too, jalapeño maybe, Lopez’s fuzz saw cutting through a beat as old as the ocean. Organ snakes through the title cut as if synced with the album art: slithering, hypnotic, gripping. Instrumentals unfold narratives too, these 13 tracks in 41 minutes – vinylist specs – building by the chapter. Animeros’ pulsing uplift imbues ¡Qué Bárbaro! with a shot-in-the-arm dynamism coating every clip-clop, cowbell, and finger whistle.
This article appears in October 2 • 2026.
