Napoleon HabeicaYerba Buena snagged a great musical act for this Friday's opening of its new Wallworks exhibit: Mexican Institute of Sound. The band is the brainchild of DJ /producer/president of EMI Mexico Camilo Lara, who uses the moniker as an excuse to mix together traditional Latin music with modern electronica. On his records you hear bits of everything from cumbia to cha cha cha, spiked by left field sound effects. Lara says Latin music comes out of him naturually--or, as he told SF We
EKAphotographyOfficially Hip: M.I.S.' Camilo Lara with Tommy Guerrero and Money Mark
Cumbia is the new Afrofunk/Batucada/Baile funk/Bhangra/Reggaeton. Hipsters have embraced the quirky Latin dance music, just as they did other global sounds of recent note, with open arms. If you need further evidence of that, you shoulda been at the Makeout Room last Saturday night, when a live set by the Mexican Institute of Sound preceded El Kool Kyle y Roger Mas' weekly "El Superrrrrrritmo!!!" cumbia DJ n
