From Tucson’s sun-scabbed sprawl comes a mythic plunge into Mictlán: XOLO, the third full-length from desert-goth psychonauts XIXA. Brian López and Gabriel Sullivan, founders and twin flamethrowers of lead guitar and voice, have summoned a concept record that channels Aztec folklore through smoky cumbia, shadowy psychedelia, and a dash of post-punk.
The title XOLO (say it “Cholo”) refers to the Xoloitzcuintli, a hairless Mexican dog once buried with Aztec dead to guide their souls through the underworld. The album is framed as a narrative journey: a girl named Arcoiris (sung with childlike charm by Mona Chambers) traverses all nine levels of Mictlán, led by her spectral canine protector.
This isn’t XIXA’s first dance with the strange. They began life as Chicha Dust, a cover band reverently reanimating Peruvian psychedelic cumbia. But XOLO is a leap further into the band’s own invented mythology. Where Bloodline (2016) and Genesis (2021) often wrestled stylistically, XOLO sounds locked in, focused, cinematic, and strangely coherent for a record crawling with ghosts.
Modern English’s Robbie Gray and Mick Conroy guest on “It Doesn’t Matter,” adding post-punk patina and a synth storm from across the Atlantic. The collaboration feels less gimmicky than cosmic alignment, fitting for a record that merges the underworld with the worldly.
XOLO plays like an exorcism of ancestry, pop mythology, and borderland identity. This is desert music with a passport, fangs, and a PhD in folklore. Rather than following trends, this record follows the dead. And if you’re looking for a road map, don’t bother. Let El Xolo lead.
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