Premiere: Salt Petal, ‘I Want to Dance’

Kevin Bronson on June 30th, 2017

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Salt Petal’s ecstatic mix of indie and Latin rock — a sound they call “tropical surf” — hits you like an ice bath, and on their new single “I Want You to Dance,” the L.A. ensemble resorts to some playful teasing to get bodies moving. “This song is an invitation to dance — it starts with a string of compliments [and] it continues with the lead voice talking about how no one seems to dance enough and they can’t help themselves but move when there’s music,” says Rodrigo Gonzalez, who co-founded the trilingual quintet with Autumn Harrison. “The style of the music is based on a cumbia feel, but we add a bit of New Orleans and South American street vibe to the solos to get the feel of this happening outside on the sidewalk, a sort of taunt to get people out on their feet.”

As with the music on their 2013 full-length “Sea Monster,” it works. The band has slowly been rolling out songs for the follow-up record, “Rare Hearts,” with producer Eric Lilavois in Seattle. The band’s composition is as global as its music — principal members hail from Buenos Aires; Sapporo, Japan; São Paulo, Brazil; and the Bay Area — and you can feel the dance floor, if not the entire globe, spinning as Harrison boldly heads to the middle. Kick up some dust. “I Want to Dance” is out next week as a single.

||| Stream: “I Want to Dance”