Making Movies, a band I first discovered during CMJ in New York City last year, is making waves with their new album.

“A La Deriva” is an 11-track high-energy tour de force that blends a multitude of traditionally dichotomous genres seamlessly.

The album is produced by Steve Berlin of the three-time Grammy winning, Chicano rock veterans, Los Lobos.

Together since ’09, Making Movies is turning out music that is bilingual and appealing to a WIDE audience. The kind of audience that encompasses many of today’s increasingly DIVERSE music fans, especially when you think of the growing Latino demographic.

Their music is indie rock. Alt Latino. Afro-caribbean in rhythm and percussion. Soulful. Indie. Classic in sound. New wave. It’s distinctly American, yet global.

Led by Panamanian brothers Enrique and Diego Chi (singer/songwriter/guitarist and bassist respectively) – and made complete by percussionist Juan Carlos Chaurand, and drummer Brendan Culp – Making Movies has been hailed as “a rare crossover band…that embraces its heritage without being wholly defined by it” (The Pitch).

And, as Marlon Bishop of MTV Iggy wrote last week, “… the band synthesizes what’s happening in indie rock and in Latin music better than anyone else out there today.”

Steve Berlin was first turned on to Making Movies when the guys opened up for Los Lobos at their Kansas City show. “I was struck by the effortless way they moved between musical styles, all the while managing to make each one completely their own,” Berlin explains.

Just as Los Lobos are tex-mex, cumbia, folk, blues, corrido but above all ROCK, Making Movies are a mixture of Latin music with a predominant American rock sound.

And this is why I believe they shouldn’t be considered JUST a Latin rock band.

Though they sing some of their lyrics in Spanish and use some instruments found in Latin music (not unlike Los Lobos or Bronx El Mariachi), they are an American rock band.

And that’s not all. The band co-founded a music camp for kids in underserved areas of Kansas City. WATCH this video about the wonderful impact they’re having with a diverse group of youth through music education. They’ve also been involved with DREAM act measures.

It may sound kind of idealistic on my part, but it’s what music is supposed to be. They’re making it for the fans, but also passing it on to the next generation.

You can grab “A La Deriva” at iTunes. You can also download the first single off the album, “Cuna De Vida,” over at Remezcla. 

And make sure to vote for Making Movies in MTV Iggy’s “Artist of the Week” contest, which ends at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 8.