Making Movies is a psychedelic Panamanian band that makes American music with an asterisk: because Making Movies’ sound encompasses the entirety of the Americas. It’s through this broader perspective that Making Movies crunches classic rock into Latin American rhythms — African-derived percussion and styles like rumba, merengue, mambo and cumbia — in a way that feels oddly familiar, yet delivers the invigorating chills of hearing something singularly special.

Over the course of their career, the quartet has turned heads as a Tiny Desk newcomer (with “A La Deriva”), a voice for immigrant rights (with “I Am Another You” which reached #3 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Album chart), and as a co-writer alongside salsa icon Rubén Blades (with Latin GRAMMY nominated song “No Te Calles”).

Making Movies has toured extensively, appearing with the likes of Arcade Fire, Rubén Blades, Los Lobos, Hurray For the Riff Raff, Bomba Estereo, Galactic, Flor De Toloache, and Thievery Corporation. The band’s fourth album XOPA was just released on L.A.-based label Cósmica Artists.