MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND & MERIDIAN BROTHERS

Ruido Tovar (Ansonia)

Five seconds of the first song here will tell you if you’ll love this or not. Do you like cumbia? Do you like lo-fi cumbia with keyboards that sound like they’ve been dropped in a fishtank then left out to dry? Do you like sunshine? Ruido Tovar brings the guitar of prime Meridian Brother Eblis Álvarez to the instrument junkshop of Mexican Institute dude Camilo Lara, and while there is clearly much dicking around, there is also tons of wonky, danceable fun.

Choice cut is the insanely wriggly single El Campeon, where an almost indiepop keyboard shimmer rubs up against itchy guitar taps and muppet-like backing vocals. Beck turns up on two songs, bababa-ing on the Loser-referencing Cumbia Beckiana and providing wide-eyed vocal sleaze on party strutter Ritmo Babilonia. Concorde sitting next to Danzen 8Bits kind of sums it up: Ruido Tovar is flashy, trashy, cheap and dusty, creaky knees on the dancefloor.