ATÓMICA

The international profile of the Cuban-born singer, rapper and musician known as La Dame Blanche has been steadily increasing since she burst onto the scene with a self-titled EP in 2014. Her carefully crafted stage persona – smoking Cohibas, reclaiming porn shop corsets, wielding a flute like a weapon and spitting bars flourished with rolled-R’s, while using a sobriquet borrowed from a Celtic goddess and/or a WWI resistance movement – turned heads from the get-go. But despite myriad collaborations with MCs, DJs and producers, including her longtime partner-in-crime, Marc ‘Babylotion’ Damble, it would be several years before Yaite ‘La Dame Blanche’ Ramos, the daughter of Buena Vista trombonist Jesús ‘Aguaje’ Ramos, got her deserved flowers.

Arguably, it was her female-centric fourth album, 2020’s Ella, that really confirmed her reputation as an artist to be reckoned with. Now comes the explosive ATÓMICA, a polished work that bottles all the dynamism of her feted and prolific live shows, weaving elements of hip-hop, trap, reggae and reggaeton into nine fiercely danceable Afro-Cuban tracks variously telling of the strength and beauty of black women (‘Mi Negro’) and poisoned-apple-eating guardian angels (‘Veneno’), a track in which she showcases her remarkable vocal range on the heels of a frantic flute passage. Brazilian actress/musician Amanda Magalhães guests on ‘Mata Sede’; Philadelphia shaman DJ Shango lends his remix of ‘A La Verita Tuya’ bouncy cumbia-style insouciance. Maravilloso.