The Blissful Noise of Xenia Rubinos [stream]

Photo by Shervin Lainez

My first listen to Xenia Rubinos was similar in some ways to my first tUnE-yArDs listen. When I heard tUnE-yArDs for the first time, it wrecked my concepts of pop song structure and then rebuilt them with expanded parameters and higher creative expectations for the pop I would hear thereafter. The difference is Xenia Rubinos isn’t breaking down barriers so much as completely ignoring them.

Rubinos’ debut album, Magic Trix, incorporates a plethora of musical elements and influences, including Spanish Caribbean, punk, experimental, and pop. At times the songs are minimalistic, at times layered with compressed beats, weighty keyboards, and infectious rhythms, proving that, at its core, her sound is very much experimental noise pop. I am drawn to it by the same elements that distinguish the work of Youth Lagoon and Bon Iver – strong yet simple melodies embedded in a jungle of alien sounds and effects. Rubinos’ sound is highly energetic and danceable, while still retaining its innovative integrity, much like tUnE-yArDs.

Each song on Magic Trix exists in a sphere of its own, providing for surprise and diversity and threaded together with rainbow-colored Xenia string. “Help” is a cry of injustice amidst off-kilter beats, while “Ultima” is a swaggertastic declaration to the subject to stop messing around because she’s “the last one” in line to love him. “Pan y Café” is a Spanish punk rock ode to “bread and coffee,” and I’m going to assume the bread she’s talking about is a pastry because the song is one of the sweetest, freshest punk songs I’ve ever heard (and there’s no guitar!). My favorite track is “Cherry Tree” in which the chorus contains powerfully sad lyrics and a hook (“I will forget…”) that just keeps coming back stronger and stronger until you’re scream-singing along. Then, a little over halfway through, she goes a cappella, dropping the beat back in at the exact second it should hit. It is, in my opinion, an eccentric and perfect pop song.

Xenia Rubinos just signed with Ba Da Bing Records and will be officially releasing her debut LP on April 23, then embarking on a May tour with label-mate Lady Lamb the Beekeeper. Magic Trix is a vibrant and enthralling debut record, and it just wouldn’t be fair for you to miss out on it. Check her out because ay Dios mio, ella es bueno! (oh my God, she’s good!)