sun 08/12/2024

The Mexican Institute of Sound, KOKO | reviews, news & interviews

The Mexican Institute of Sound, KOKO

The Mexican Institute of Sound, KOKO

Great beats but a lack of subtlety takes away the edge

The larger-than-life Camilo Lara of The Mexican Institute of Sound

The downside of this job is that because new CDs are dropping through the letterbox every day, a lot of stuff inevitably gets consigned to the archives and forgotten about, when it really shouldn’t be. So when I heard that The Mexican Institute of Sound (aka Mexico City’s Camilo Lara) was rather belatedly playing live in London for the first time (his last album was released two years ago), it was an excuse to reacquaint myself with his recorded works to see if they were as good as they seemed at the time. The good news is that they are, but the less good news is that this concert didn’t really do them justice.

The downside of this job is that because new CDs are dropping through the letterbox every day, a lot of stuff inevitably gets consigned to the archives and forgotten about, when it really shouldn’t be. So when I heard that The Mexican Institute of Sound (aka Mexico City’s Camilo Lara) was rather belatedly playing live in London for the first time (his last album was released two years ago), it was an excuse to reacquaint myself with his recorded works to see if they were as good as they seemed at the time. The good news is that they are, but the less good news is that this concert didn’t really do them justice.

‘The textural sophistication and wit of other tracks was sacrificed in the service of the more prosaic need to satisfy the appetites of the dance floor’

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