“Soy Sauce” (Irish Release Friday 1st May) traverses his wild musical imagination with a witty sense of humour for good effect - whether it’s converting the traditional sounds of cumbia to a full-on electronic dance track, paying tribute to hip hop luminaries J Dilla and Biggie with Mexican sonidos, or singing a love song as if Serge Gainsbourg had spent time in the Mayan jungle.

Produced by Holger Beier (one half of Bungalow’s Le Hammond Inferno), the album features almost entirely original songs recorded with a live band and vocals. Lara also invited some of his influential musician friends to perform on the album, including Café Tacuba lead guitarist Joselo Rangel, and Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys who remixed ‘Alocatel’ – an explosive dance anthem that bridges the worlds between Mexico City and New York.

Mexican Institute Of Sound’s 2007 album Pinata received incredible critical acclaim, including Rolling Stone magazine calling it “One of the 10 Best albums of the year”, and tracks were featured on Ugly Betty and in adverts for Pizza Hut and FIFA 2008.

Camilo Lara never set out with the intention of taking his personal musical career seriously. At first, he was simply creating holiday mixes for friends. But then his friends convinced him that he should take his songs off his computer and into the studio. Now four years later, Lara, known as the Mexican Institute of Sound (M.I.S.) is building on the momentum of his breakthrough sophomore release ‘Pinata’ with a highly-anticipated new album “Soy Sauce”, released on Monday 4th May

“Soy Sauce” traverses Lara’s wild musical imagination with a witty sense of humour for good effect ... whether it’s converting the traditional sounds of cumbia to a full-on electronic dance track, paying tribute to hip hop luminaries J Dilla and Biggie with Mexican sonidos, or singing a love song as if Serge Gainsbourg had spent time in the Mayan jungle.

While early M.I.S. songs combined a variety of vintage samples into instrumental tracks, “Soy Sauce” features almost entirely original songs recorded with a live band and vocals. “Holger Beier, the mastermind behind German act Le Hammond Inferno, is the producer for the album,” Lara says. “He helped give the songs structure and brought new flavours for my ideas.”

Beier’s contribution is most evident on a song like ‘Yo Digo Baila’. “This is my most to the point dance track,” Lara explains. “I have to thank Holger for pushing me to being open minded to these sorts of ideas. What I like is that it has the sounds of cumbia but in a very radical style.”

Lara also invited some of his influential musician friends to perform on the album. “When I was working on ‘Soy Sauce,’ I was obsessed with Café Tacuba’s classic album ‘Re’,” Lara says. “I wanted to record an album like that - going from polka to punk in one second. That’s why I had found it so fascinating. I wanted my album to really cover the entire scope of my musical tastes.”

So he ended up recruiting close friend and Tacuba’s lead guitarist Joselo Rangel to play on the tracks ‘Hiedra Venenosa’ and ‘Alocatel’. From there, Ad Rock, of hip hop icons the Beastie Boys, decided he wanted to remix the track ‘Alocatel'.

“I’ve been friends with Mike D of the Beastie Boys for a long time,” Lara explains. “So one night after one of their shows in Mexico City, I had the group over to my place for dinner. Mike introduced me to Ad Rock and I gave him some of my music from the new album that I had been working on. Months down the line, he got back in touch, saying that he wanted to collaborate.”
The result is an explosive dance anthem that bridges the worlds between Mexico City and New York. It represents a common theme across the M.I.S. catalogue; fusing the sounds of contrasting music genres and cultures. On ‘White Stripes’, M.I.S. makes its own personal tribute to hip hop legends J Dilla and Biggie. The song features the vocals of Mexican pop star Paty Cantu. “I had wanted to do a hip hop track with a Mexican vibe,” Lara says. “The result? Well, it’s the opposite.”