Sotomayor’s Wabi Sabi is the funniest record of 2026

Shout out to the subscriber N_Gorsky To choose today. They’ve been featured in the comments on Last week’s recommendation To ask what I think of Sotomayor’s new record. Well, I haven’t heard of it yet, but now I’m obsessed with it.

The group consists of siblings Raul and Paulina Sotomayor from Mexico City. Wabi-sabi It is their first record since 2020 OriginsAnd it’s pure joy. You can look back through it Everything I recommended Over the past few months, “fun” isn’t how you describe most of them. But that’s what Wabi-sabi It is – it’s fun, it’s messy, and it’s fluffy as hell.

I was only familiar with sotomayor before this because a Short documentary film About Appleton’s various Raoul projects. In this video he discusses how his style of making music has changed over the years. How he used to try to make things sound ‘correct’ and ‘clean’, but now it’s about ‘how much can we distort it’ or ‘how much can we stretch it’.

You can definitely hear that in the music. The first track, “Me dejo llevar,” begins with a synth arpeggio that has clearly been stretched in time to within an inch of its life. It’s loaded with digital artifacts. The entire track has a light crust, as if everything is just being cut never Quite a bit. “From There” feels like the edges, sounding like a dance floor perpetually on the verge of exploding into a riot.

The retro electronic drum beats, droning bass, and echo-filled stabs of noise never reach full catharsis, but they mature beautifully on album standout “Vida.” Here, Paulina finds sexy gear as she cruises down a winding UK garage track that eventually explodes into the Afrohouse club.

Wabi-sabi Interspecies bounce with contagious abandonment. Afrobeat, cumbia, electro pop, R&B and more come together on the most fun album of 2026 yet. What makes it even more impressive is that, despite its unconventional sounds (Donkey jaw?) and stylistic excursions, Sotomayor still has a distinct vision that holds the record together.

At no time does chaos threaten to overwhelm the situation. It never feels like the duo are simply throwing things at the wall to see what sticks; Everything is a carefully made decision to serve the party. The gently sinuous guitar of “Yo se todo de ti,” the classical house of “Todo se derrumba,” and the dancehall of “Prende la palma” seem united by Paulina’s undeniable charisma on the mic and Raúl’s unrestrained vocal curiosity.