Divino Niño

The restlessly evolving Chicago band Divino Niño started off making indie pop that incorporated ’50s-inspired pop, beachy jams, and sweet ballads. By the time of 2019’s Foam, they’d hit on a combination of gentle psychedelia and trippy chillwave to produce a unified and calmly melodic sound. The band delved into their Latin heritage for 2022′s Last Spa on Earth, coming come up with a radiant, oddball take on multiple forms of Latin pop ranging from reggaeton to trap.
The group was formed by guitarist/vocalist Camilo Medina and bassist Javier Forero; the two had known each other as children in Bogotá, Colombia, then reconnected when their families moved to Miami. They ended up in Chicago together and enlisted guitarist Guillermo Rodriguez and drummer Pierce Codina to help create their low-key, laid-back sound that’s equal parts dreamy ’50s ballads, dream pop, and chillwave with songs sung in both English and Spanish. Their first record, 2014’s Pool Jealousy, was released by the Native Sound label and featured a mix of woozy ballads and songs that had a soft psychedelic coating. They recorded their next record, 2016′s The Shady Sexyfornia Tapes, at home, and many of the songs barely hit the two-minute mark, and feel very stripped-down in comparison to their debut. The quartet played shows around Chicago and the world, then began work on a third album. Recorded again in Medina’s apartment, the band asked for help from Grapetooth’s Justin Vittori on Wurlitzer and percussion, slide guitarist Luke Henry, Chicago musician Paul Cherry, and Twin Peaks’ Andrew Humphrey, who assisted Medina and Forero with the final mix. Foam was issued by the Winspear label in mid-2019. While on tour, the band started playing with the tempos of their songs, seeking to move the crowds with more danceable rhythms. This impulse became the driving force behind their next record, along with recent discoveries of modern Latin pop sounds they liked. Add these factors to the enforced isolation of the pandemic — which meant they spent more time programming beats and fooling around with computers than playing together in the same room — and the result was the Last Spa on Earth album. Released in late 2022 by Winspear, the record is a joyous, indie pop-free exploration of Latin sounds like reggaeton, cumbia, champeta, and urbano. ~ Tim Sendra