Album Review

What I’m listening to: Méjico Máxico

OK, I admit it. I bought this CD for the packaging. Whilst rummaging in an almost-abandoned Brighton record store one fine June afternoon back in 2006, I found it.

“Instituto Mexicano Del Sonido”

What the hell is this? Hmm. Fold out cardboard packet. Candified rainbow stripes augment black and white photos of a balding, slightly chubby and unshaven DJ. He wears no headphones, but from his elegant slouch and effortless way of making even a smart suit look scruffy, he’s got to be a DJ.

I was only in the record store because I was passing through. I had no intention of buying anything. I, like many of you dear readers, have the simple and singular compulsion of not being able to walk past a record shop. It was two weeks before I was due to move to the Middle East and I was visiting friends on the south coast. Brighton has many record shops, but I was skint.

Proper skint.

I had £1.37 and a train ticket to my name. I didn’t even have a record player where I was going. There was no point in even entering a record store. It must have been one of those great cosmic connections. A moment in life that fate had planned eons before and had awaited patiently. For, as I gazed upon the unknown CD in my hand, the price tag swam into view through my smoke-tinged spectacles.

One pound.

I’m having that.

My hairy compañero had bought a Johnny Cash boxset which took priority on the stereophonicintergramulator once home. I only had a chance to listen to the first track. First impressions count. There were some friendly latin beats and some weird sampling. Then I noticed a sample also used by Louie Vega on Mambo No. 5. I (incorrectly) assumed that this DJ had sampled Louie Vega, and turned it off, consigning it to the darkest depths of my rucksack.

I would listen to it again, I thought. And give it a proper chance.

Two weeks later, I was sitting in a friends’ kitchen in the ancient city of Bethlehem, and I had forgotten all about strange Mexican electronica. Knowing my man was a massive fan of the Liverpool-based Tramp Attack, I was introducing him to the delights of Gogol Bordello. For the following eighteen months, I would be ducking and diving my way through various volatile situations under the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories, reporting news and attending demonstrations and other ‘actions’.

Fast forward to July 2008, and picture me in an altogether more calm state of mind. Relaxing with my lovely girlfriend in our home in northern Italy. A warm glow and a comfy sofa. Time to slip on something a bit different. I find Méjico Máxico and stick it on.

Camilo Lara, Mexico City resident DJ, has crafted something very special here. Using samples from classic Mexican folk tunes originally recorded in the 1920s through ‘60s, Lara has blended his first true ‘fusion’ record – and it’s more listenable, and definitely less cheesy, than One Giant Leap – the best-known example of the genre.

It’s not a dance record. Yet Hey Tia! will get you up and bouncing. It’s not a chill-out album either. Yet Corasound will surely adorn the playlist of many bedroom DJ’s breakfast compilations. And hiphop heads will be pleased to know that Lara is not afraid to dish out the broken beats and big bass either.

I imagine that being President of EMI Mexico couldn’t have hurt his attempts to get clearance for all the samples he’s included, but you mustn’t write Camilo Lara off as a corporate producer. In this collection, he has undoubtedly brought forward some genuinely experimental compositions with a complexity and a gift for counterpoint beyond most first-time electronica producers.

If you like electronica, if you enjoy latin music or if you just enjoy hearing a mix of old and new, you’ll find something on this album. If you like it, you’ll love The Nortec Collective and Kinky also. I’ve yet to find out how I could have puchased this album, so soon after its release, and so far away from Mexico, for such an affordable price. But you know the best thing? It has an 8-track EP stuck on the back, which I’m listening to, right now, for the very first time! And it’s dead good!

No Comments »