Inside the moody blues of Diles Que No Me Maten

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Set us as preferred When Jonás Derbez was growing up, he would often stay up late into the night watching his saxophonist father perform with a jazz ensemble.“Listening to his solos brings up so many childhood memories,” Derbez tells The Times over Zoom.“My sister and I would pull up a couple of chairs together and fall asleep while listening to the music in the Jalapa bar where we all lived together.”Derbez is now the lead singer, sax player and band manager of Diles Que No Me Maten: one of the most acclaimed indie bands to emerge from Mexico in the last decade.

Released in June, the group’s fourth album, “Escrito en Agua,” is a bohemian tour de force — a bewitching combination of freestyle poetry, menacing Krautrock, melancholy shades of jazz and post-rock.It begins with the somber instrumental “Las Noches Que Dormimos en Sillas” (The Nights When We Slept on Chairs), a tribute to those early listening sessions.

Derbez’s father contributes an alto sax solo.Diles Que No Me Maten found its name in a short story by iconic Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, the author of “Pedro Páramo.” The sound of the band is an anomaly, even within the obscure parameters of underground Latin.A song like the hypnotic “Hiriku” — the closest thing to a lead single you are likely to find on this record — brims with the neurotic propulsion and icy elegance of the U.K.post-punk band Wire, while the spirit of experimental German outfit Can is probably the group’s deepest, most existential influence.“We are an improbable band,” admits Derbez with a smile.

It’s a sunny afternoon in the Mexican capital, and the disarming sweetness with which he expresses his thoughts mirrors the band’s vulnerable soundscapes.“There’s a person who was fundamental to the very existence of this group,” he adds.“A producer na...