The collaborative album and project Ruido Tovar is a musical marriage between two relentless creators and master collaborators: Mexican Institute of Sound, the project of producer, DJ, and cultural agitator Camilo Lara, who has been redefining Mexico’s sound since the mid-2000s by blending cumbia and mariachi with hip-hop, electronica and global beats, and Bogotá-based inventive, tropical psychedelic Meridian Brothers (lead by musical maverick and experimental composer Eblis Alvarez).

The name is a wordplay, a subtle homage, and sonic deconstruction of the legacy of Mexican icon Rigo Tovar, who revolutionized cumbia by mixing in Moog (and apparently drove a custom pink Ferrari). Described by Lara as “a futuristic album” it melds his self-taught collage style and Alvarez’s heady, academy-trained approach with the pairs’ breathtaking symbiosis — or, as Lara puts it, “two trains colliding at full speed.”

The resulting sound is rooted in ’70s and early ’80s Mexican tropical music. Shepherded by these neotropical and post-cumbia heavyweights, akin to old cumbia records — where each track carried its own story and melodic world, often breaking into sub-genres like cha-cha-chá, danzón, and bolero — Ruido Tovar’s creations land like delightfully weird gems. Improvised over Alvarez's jangly guitars, madcap lyrics about communism, heartbreak and existential angst blend with an arsenal of synthesizers and samples —all lovingly played and curated by Lara. Rare instruments join more conventional ones, reflecting Alvarez and Lara’s love for collecting oddities and expanding cumbia’s sound.

- Kerry Clarke