Lido Pimienta – Eso Que Tu Haces
Lido Pimienta has announced the release of Miss Colombia (April 17, ANTI-), the anticipated follow-up to La Papessa, which was awarded the Polaris Music Prize in 2017. The Colombian-born, Toronto-based global beats trailblazer recorded the album in her home studio, with some additional recording done in the historic Colombian town of San Basilio de Palenque. Miss Colombia boasts 11 new and original songs that boldly celebrate Lido’s ecstatic musical hybridity of electronic meets cumbia, and is at once defiant and delicate, exploratory and confrontational. All of the songs were written and arranged by Lido, and she co-produced the album with Matt Smith aka Prince Nifty.
“Eso Que Tu Haces” is a roaring declaration of discovery, as she exhales loudly, “Eso que tu haces / no es amor” (“that thing you do / is not love”).
The album title was partly inspired by the Miss Universe gaffe in 2015, when Steve Harvey mistakenly awarded the crown to Miss Colombia instead of Miss Philippines. It caused Lido to reflect on the anti-blackness she’s experienced, and how she was viewed as an outsider in adolescence, a “weird artistic tomboy” for not adhering to the expected norms projected upon her. Lido – an Afro-Indigenous, queer feminist – created Miss Colombia as a canvas for introspection, with pieces about love (and self-love), and loss. Other songs confront divisive politics in Colombia, Indigenous inequality and racism, and ultimately to bring her closer to home.
Musically it digs deeply into the history of Afro-Latin music, from Palenque to cumbia – styles that Lido embraced after being introduced to Sexteto Tabala, one of the most representative musical expressions of the African communities in Colombia (who are also featured on the album). The album also features Bomba Estereo’s Li Saumet. Lido has an affinity for acts like A Tribe Called Red and Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq, but her work also resonates with British-Sri Lankan rapper MIA and she draws unabashed inspiration from the New York-bred Dominican-Trinidadian rap queen Cardi B.
Lido first teased new music in December with this vibrant music video for the glitchy “No Pude.” NPR Music says the song “parses the complicated language of race, indigeneity, gender and violence that titles like these conjure”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaY5N1g2ZEk
Lido Pimienta is an interdisciplinary musician and artist that has been praised by NPR Music, Pitchfork, Fader, Noisey, Remezcla, Stereogum, Rolling Stone and featured on the cover of Toronto’s NOW Magazine. She has been a speaker at Red Bull Music Academy, creates visual art and is working on a graphic novel, has shared stages with Cuco, Helado Negro and Austra, and recently performed at Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s Dia de los Muertos celebration.
TRACKLIST:
1 Para Transcribir (SOL)
2 Eso Que Tu Haces
3 Nada (feat. Li Saumet)
4 Te Quería
5 No Pude
6 Coming Thru
7 Quiero Que Me Salves (preludio feat. Rafael Cassiani Cassiani)
8 Quiero Que Me Salves (ft. Sexteto Tabala)
9 Pelo Cucu
10 Resisto Y Ya
11 Para Transcribir (LUNA)
