Twisted Cumbia
KoKo’s
Pollito Booglaloo, Axel Krygier and Mexican Institue of Sound
Dj Russ Jones aka Hackney Globe Trotter
Twisted Cumbia | Girl with M.I.S Drum Stick
It’s been a while since I have been inside the old Camden Palace now renamed KoKo’s. We had arrived late due to the fact that we were at the 1st Latin Dance Fest down at the Floridita which meant that we had missed the first act which was Pollito Boogaloo.
We arrived at KoKo’s for Axel Krygier’s set who is an Argentine from Buenos Aires who’s latest album 2010 Pesebre is an eclectic fusion of cumbia, tango, electronica and Argentine folk music and all of these genres were on show. The main event though was the Mexican Institue of Sound and it was M.I.S debut performance in the UK.
Originating from Mexico they brought over to London their own brand of electronica mixing it with pop, Cumbia, Rock and anything else they can pick up along the way.
M.I.S’s stage presence is awesome, for 3 people they made the stage look small and had the crowd rocking for most of their duration of their set. The song that got the most response was the song called Cumbia, which no doubt most people knew.
The only real negative of the night was that it was not as busy as I thought it would be, we were all expecting it to be filled up to the rafters as this was a great line up of Alternative Latin Music, as the name of the night suggests the Cumbia that was played was twisted and what I mean is that it was progressive, so for all you die hard old skool Cumbia enthusiasts, you may well have been dissapointed but if you like a your music to be forward thinking and that is not meant as criticsim of old skool Cumbia, as Cumbia in its original form is glorious but it’s nice to push the boundries of music and find what else can be achieved and this is what Axel Krygier and in particular M.I.S do really well. They push the boundries of Cumbia and Mexican Music/Latin and fuse it with Electronica, Beats and a huge dose of imagination. By now one of Latino Music UK’s photographers, Karolina Przeklas managed to get herself onto the stage with a few other member’s of the crowd for the finale and took some quality photos.
In between all of this there was Russ Jones aka Hackney Globe Trotter of Arriba la Cumbia fame was playing his progressive style of heavy Cumbia beats to keep the crowds from getting restless. A great night though the musicicans desereved a bigger turn out.
Yo digo Baila tu dices Dance, Cumbiaaaaa! Yeah Baybe.
Check out our photos of the evening on our Latino Music UK Flickr Page
Review by Alejandro Gatica
Incoming search terms:
