Los Angeles’ pop experimentalist Angélica Garcia today releases her visceral new astrologically-inclined single “Gemini” about seeing the double-sided facade and dichotomy in all things in life. Propelled by the track’s alt-pop instrumentation (provided in part by members of Chicano Batman), Angélica juxtaposes lyrics that probe into the dark side of the duality inherent within all. “Gemini” further explores the overall themes present on Angélica’s upcoming album Gemelo, whose title refers to the twin self: the idea of a second, more intuitive self within as she sings, “I see double, I see double everywhere I go…” Listen to “Gemini” here: https://angelicagarcia.lnk.to/Gemini
She adds,” Sometimes I just want to be playful because so many things in the world feel simulated anyway. Choosing joy in the face of everything sometimes feels like rebellion. ‘Gemini’ leans the most into the Chicano Batman influence. Carlos Arévalo and Eduardo Arenas both play on it. Our friend William Alexander did a live cut of the drums, and it’s the only song on the album where the drums weren’t processed like samples. A big part of Gemini’s personality comes from the live feel.”
Today, Angélica also announces a co-headlining date with La Doña for the Elsewhere Rooftop in Brooklyn, NYC set for July 9th.
“Gemini” arrives after the momentous announcement of Gemelo and the release of the prismatic single “Color De Dolor” which was included on Uproxx’s Best New Pop list upon release, featured by Steve Lacq on BBC 6 Music, praised by NPR who said Angélica is “a master of honoring identity,” and The New York Times who said “the music sounds absolutely joyful.”
Angélica describes “Color de Dolor” as a testament to her philosophy of life – explaining in a recent Line of Best Fit cover story what the song tells us about the nature of loss: “Aunque nunca cortaré con mis dolores / Yo los pinto lleno de colores”, or “Even though I will never sever the tie with my pains, I paint them full of colors.” It was the first song she wrote for Gemelo. “We can’t separate ourselves from the grief we know very personally, but we do have a choice to take it and paint it in our own color,” she shares. “I think that is the biggest lesson I took. There are hard nights, but it’s within my power to transform that hard night into something beautiful anytime that I want to. I’m never disempowered. I am always empowered to make that choice.”
The experimental pop auteur has already garnered high praise from The New York Times for her new music. “With a voice that leaps and keens like Kate Bush, with echoes multiplying behind her, [Angélica] Garcia sings about an attraction that surges beyond the physical to the metaphysical…,” they wrote of her song “Juanita.” Elsewhere, Remezcla wrote that Angélica “..harbors the mixed chaos surrounding the discovery and breaking of generational trauma, while her alluring voice gently guides listeners through the ongoing and never-ending process.” Additional praise for “Juanita” also has come in at Pitchfork; who included the track on their Selects roundup, as well as Rolling Stone, Wonderland, and NPR who said the song “summons spirits.”
Gemelo is crucial for Angélica, marking not only her first album sung almost entirely in Spanish, but her first deeply probing the ancestral altar, having in recent years devoted herself to a process of monumental deconstruction — of religion, spirit, heritage, and womanhood, in turn confronting grief and finding liberation. “It was like getting dropped into ice water,” she says.
As her most focused work to date, Gemelo progresses from its delicate, tender entry in Side A, which serves like almost a meditation, to the visceral intensity of Side B, which immerses into the difficult, at times terrifying work of healing. All throughout the album she also challenges the traditional American pop music idioms, opening the floodgates with a refreshingly universal rhythmic set of songs where heritage snaps into focus in both lyric and disparate sound channeling elements of Yves Tumor, Kate Bush, Karen O, Rosalía, Kali Uchis and Xenia Rubinos. She and Arévalo have shaped a self-contained universe with her demos, bonding over everything from Portishead and Radiohead to Timbaland and early Madonna, incorporating front-and-center pop-vocal production and clublike textures and rhythms all throughout.
Raised in El Monte by Mexican and El Salvadoran parents, Garcia has been surrounded by music her entire life – her mother was an artist who had a top 40 Hot 100 hit and her stepfather was in A&R prior to becoming a priest. Already she’s earned praise from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair`, a debut atNPR’s Tiny Desk, space on Barack Obama’s annual best-of-the-year roundup with her cross-cultural anthem “Jicama” along with syncs at Apple, HBO, tour dates with Mitski, Vagabon and beyond. Now, with growth and exploration like wind behind her, Garcia has arrived at her clearest and most fully-realized vision of self.