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New Music Monday: Dom La Nena

By Dave Sanford Aug 6, 2021 7:45 AM

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Dom La Nena Soyo art Dominique Pinto—better known by her stage name, Dom La Nena—released her second full-length album, Soyo, earlier this month through Six Degrees Records. Since the 2013 release of her debut album, Ela, Dom has released the four-track Golondrina EP—featuring a stunning cover of The National’s “Start a War”—a set of remixes titled Ela Por Eles, and a collaboration with Rosemary Standley titled Birds on a Wire. Having learned the cello from a young age, the instrument plays a major role on all each record. Along with Dom’s quiet voice, the cello brings an element of intimacy to the music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipZb7ogDHXo

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Her voice and cello find companions in other chamber folk elements like the piano. The final result has garnered Dom La Nena comparisons to Brian Wilson (Wall Street Journal), Joanna Newsom (Time Out New York), Cat Power (Pop Dose), and more abstractly “the shadow of Lhasa like an angel passing by” (Voir).

After the release of Ela, Dom spent the better part of two years touring internationally, and Soyo‘s sound reflects on that experience as it builds from the base that Ela created. After sketching the songs out on her own, Dom recruited Marcelo Camelo (formerly of Los Hermanos) to produce Soyo. The two collaborated to expand the tracks, including elements of indie rock and Latin dance forms. Ultimately, every instrument on Soyo was performed by Camelo or Dom herself.

Dom La Nena’s new album, Soyo, is available on Amazon, iTunes, and Bandcamp.

Elevate your elegance: Choosing your first cigar

Face, Head, Person

Earlier this year, I was strolling the streets of New York and ended up sitting in the Carnegie Club with an Old Fashioned in one hand and a cigar in the other while My Way by Frank Sinatra played from a speaker flanking leather-bound books behind the couch I had been using as my perch. It was my first cigar, but it led to a slight obsession that recently found me on the back deck of a lodge in Kenya, staring at Mount Kilimanjaro and smoking a stick while giraffes meandered by. Admittedly, there has been no intention in my budding hobby; I am aimlessly choosing the cigars that look good (the ones that look like those smoked by Arnold or Stallone in the movies, obviously). But I have decided to approach these in a new way, with a little help from my friends over at La Aurora, who graciously decided to navigate my ignorance with some info compiled by Brand Manager John Gaglio, with input from Master Blender Manuel Ynoa, CEO Ed McKenna, and Brand Manager Elvis Batista.

What to look for in your first cigar

FIFA’s Gianni Infantino Is Uglifying the Beautiful Game With $20 Billion Plot — But the Global Soccer Community’s Punching Back

People, Person, Crowd

For the better part of two decades, perhaps even more, corruption has allegedly run rampant within FIFA. Sepp Blatter, in particular, became the face of alleged extortion schemes, and he operated with impunity while at the helm of the organization for 17 years, from 1998 until his forced resignation in 2015 amid an FBI corruption probe. He’s banned for life from all football-related FIFA activities. If you’re new to the organization’s alleged deep connection to corruption, Netflix offers a brilliant 2022 documentary, FIFA Uncovered. In that documentary, Gianni Infantino appears in his previous capacity as Secretary General of UEFA (2009-2016) and later as the newly elected FIFA president, who vowed to root out corruption and hand the beautiful game back to the people where it belongs.

That, as it turns out, was all wishful thinking.

Escobar Cigars, Co-Owned by Nas, Drops Four-Profile Robusto House Blend Collection

Blade, Knife, Weapon

Imagine that, Nas is getting closer to ruling the cigar world. The legendary rapper’s Escobar Cigars, which he co-owns, is making waves with the launch of a new four-profile House Blend collection. The launch is in partnership with Cigar Chief, one of North America’s largest premium cigar retailers.

The Manual has not yet had the chance to do a taste review (a pack is on the way), but Escobar Cigars says the four-profile House Blend collection (Maduro, Premium Blend Connecticut, Habano, and Connecticut Robusto) “has its own distinct wrapper, filler, and strength profile,” and that “all four are rolled in 5 x 52 Robusto format using classic Cubano entubado construction.”