Liliana Saumet stalks the stage like a panther and the crowd at Central Park’s SummerStage chants “Fuego” with the huntress during the Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) in July. For the thousands of onlookers, most were hearing Bomba Estereo for the first time. A look, a laugh or the purring cadence of her voice is all it takes to feel the band’s allure.

However, it’s Simón Mejía who is responsible for unleashing Bomba Estereo and their album Blow Up to audiences the world over—from the band’s hometown, Bogota, to London and Denmark. Mejía is the storyteller, weaving together guitar, synthesizers, and a drum machine with more traditional Colombian instruments like the flauta de mill, alegre, maracas, guache, and llamado to make the sonic landscape Saumet inhabits. Recording mostly instrumental work on his own, when the two came together, Mejía found the …