featured image: credit – Mark Yareham
DEBUT ALBUM SUPERNOVA OUT SEPTEMBER 15TH VIA RUSIAIDK / WARNER RECORDS
Rising Madrileño Ralphie Choo shares his new single “VOYCONTODO” in preparation for the release of his debut album SUPERNOVA due September 15th via RusiaIDK under exclusive license to Warner Records. Laced with Ralphie’s ethereal vocals, acoustic guitar and kazoo-like sonics, “VOYCONTODO” showcases Ralphie’s ability to create emotional ballads with dynamic and intricate musicality. Additionally, Ralphie was recently featured on the NPR World Cafe podcast for their Sense of Place: Madrid series performing select tracks from the forthcoming album. Check out the mesmerizing first installment of his interview and performance HERE.
On SUPERNOVA, Ralphie Choo continues to surprise. The Spanish artist’s highly anticipated debut album will include the previously shared singles “MÁQUINA CULONA” featuring acclaimed UK producer Mura Masa, which arrived with an absurd and theatrical video directed by David Heofs and Roy Viceroy, and “GATA.” Ralphie thrives on crossing wires between modernity and tradition to create music meant to challenge the conventions, and generations, that separate the sounds they love. SUPERNOVA streaks across flamenco, contemporary pop, latin trap, and the amalgamation of everything in-between. Even as the Madrid-native simultaneously embraces and redefines monolithic notions of Spanish identity, Ralphie’s devotion to universal themes of love, heartbreak, and loneliness ground the project in honest reality.
July 2020 saw the release of Ralphie Choo’s track “Dolores,” the gauzy house/jazz hybrid crafted with fellow RusiaIDK collective member rusowsky that was the first banger from their fruitful, ongoing creative partnership. But Choo cites the December release of “Lamento de una supernova” as an even more significant turning point: It was his first time dipping into flamenco, as well as handing the mix and mastering reins to engineers who achieved a more polished and professional sound. In 2022, Ralphie’s track “BULERÍAS DE UN CABALLO MALO” was awarded Best New Track by Pitchfork, noting: “With each turn, Choo opens up the jagged depths below the music’s glimmering surface.” Earlier this year, he was featured on an episode of COLORS performing his song “Tangos de una moto trucada.”
Check out “VOYCONTODO” and pre-save / order SUPERNOVA above, learn more about Ralphie Choo and see album details below, and stay tuned for more from Ralphie Choo coming soon.
Ralphie Choo
SUPERNOVA
Rusia Idk / Warner Records
September 15, 2023
1. JUAN SALVADOR GAVIOTA
2. NHF
3. BULERIAS DE UN CABALLO MALO
4. TOTAL90NOSTALGIA
5. BÓ
6. WHIPCREAM (feat. ***** *****)
7. WCID? (feat. ****)
8. GATA (feat. rusowsky)
9. MÁQUINA CULONA (feat. Mura Masa)
10. VOYCONTODO
11. SUPERNOVA (feat. ***** *****)
12. TANGOS DE UNA MOTO TRUCADA (feat. DRUMMIE)
13. BESO BRUMA
14. METAVERSE (feat. ***)
More about Ralphie Choo:
Ralphie Choo is a kaleidoscopic talent. Unbound by genre, the meteoric Spanish singer and producer is creating baroque pop that weaves impressionistic songwriting with rhythmic elements of flamenco, bossa nova, hip-hop, and IDM. Alongside friends and colleagues from the multidisciplinary RusiaIDK collective—which includes rusowsky, DRUMMIE, TRISTÁN!, and mori—Choo has honed sonic and visual signatures that interface with Internet aesthetics, the fashion world, and his own textured Spanish heritage. The whirlpool of influences culminates in his upcoming major-label debut SUPERNOVA, slated for release September 15th.
Singles “Tangos de Una Moto Trucada” and “BULERÍAS DE UN CABALLO MALO” are avant collages of Spanish guitar, bulería claps, 808s, and flamenco’s unique vocal cadence, tapping into the roots revival that has made global superstars of Rosalía and C. Tangana. Meanwhile, recent cuts such as “GATA” with rusowsky, and “MÁQUINA CULONA” featuring British producer Mura Masa, tap into the bass-heavy reggaetón booming in Spanish nightclubs.
“It’s been a challenge creating these songs in Spanish since so many of my references are in English,” says Choo, citing Tyler the Creator and Aphex Twin as personal luminaries. “Most people are brought up with very specific pop culture references, but my mother exposed me to classical music and [Spanish musicians] Paco de Lucía and Camarón de la Isla. The raw emotion in their vocal performances and their chopped-up, punctuated style of guitar playing are huge sources of inspiration.”
A Y2K baby, Ralphie Choo was born Juan Casado Fisac in Madrid, later relocating with his mother to the small town of Daimiel in Castilla-La Mancha. He describes an average upbringing playing sports, learning the French horn, and getting into trouble with friends. By the time he returned to Madrid to attend university, he’d developed a voracious interest in music production, delving deeper into the study of vocal harmonies and percussion. However, in 2019 a torn ACL left him immobilized for several weeks, which transformed his musical experiments into a vital creative outlet. He soon donned the Simpsons-inspired moniker of Ralphie Choo and began uploading ruminant lo-fi tunes.
Throughout the pandemic lull Choo cultivated his boundary-pushing yet distinctly Spanish voice with help from RusiaIDK, even scoring lead producer credits alongside rusowsky on folk-pop star DELLAFUENTE’s acclaimed 2023 LP Lágrimas pa otro día. He also starred in his own cinematic Colors session in April, performing “Tangos de Una Moto Trucada,” and took the stage at Sonar Festival in Barcelona this June with an updated instrumental arsenal that included a string quartet, cajón, flute, electric guitar, and pedal effects.
Even as Ralphie Choo simultaneously embraces and redefines monolithic notions of Spanish identity, his devotion to universal themes of love, heartbreak, and loneliness ground the project in honest reality.
“There’s a constant sense of melancholy, especially when all the things you dreamed about start happening so fast,” he adds, reflecting on the loaded emotions behind SUPERNOVA. “One day you’re in your room sketching out songs and the next you’re in L.A. and New York meeting your idols and making dreams come true. There’s a part of me that asks, ‘What changed?’ Like, you don’t want to let yourself down, but at the same time, I cling to banal memories of a life without worries. Now I have a schedule, a vision, and these crazy goals. I’m hungry for this, but I think that inner conflict is reflected in the record.”
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