Sephy released his mind-expanding pop single “Brujo Chueco” with a psychedelic animated visualizer for the track. The project of Philadelphia-based musician Joel Sephy Gleiser, founder of Son Step, the artist’s music is informed by his experience as an immigrant and what it means to be seen as an outsider. Born of Columbian parents, themselves immigrants from Argentina and born from European Jews escaping Nazism, his search for home, family, and cultural meaning in hostile circumstances is vitally relevant.
A spiraling arpeggio of geometric piano notes opens “Brujo Chueco.” Soon joined by Sephy’s soaring vocal abilities, his lyrics move between Spanish and English challenging the listener to follow along even as language becomes a metaphor for the barriers the musician has faced in his own life. Dramatizing this search for identity through his lyrics, the song addresses the listener squarely with the reminder: “You don’t even know who you are.”
Along the way, “Brujo Chueco” travels sweeping compositional distances drawing past and present iterations of popular music into a future-forward pop without boundaries. From its contemplative jazz-like opening, Sephy goes on to shatter the fourth wall as he steps through the mirror into a shimmering array of percussion and psychedelic audio detail. All the while and against all the odds, the musician’s ardent vocal appeal guides us into a strange and beautiful world we might both understand and not.
