Mexican Institute of Sound & Meridian Brothers Are Taking Their Tropical Madness on Tour: ‘I’ve Never Faced Such a Huge Challenge’

After wrapping up his “most World Cup-focused” phase — following his role as one of the music producers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup — Mexican artist Camilo Lara is ready to return to the stage as Mexican Institute of Sound (MIS) and the Colombian band Meridian Brothers to perform songs from their recent collaborative album Ruido Tovar live.

The concert series kicks off on Saturday (July 25) at the Calgary Folk Music Festival in Alberta, Canada, where Lara and Eblis Álvarez, founder of Meridian Brothers, will perform live for the first time the tracks from their LP, inspired by the Mexican cumbia legend Rigo Tovar.

“The Ruido Tovar tour is a clash of ideas and sounds,” Lara tells Billboard Español. “I’ve never faced such a huge challenge in my touring career. Between Mexican Institute of Sound and Meridian Brothers, there are nine of us on stage. The result? A postmodern cumbia-punk-rock orchestra.”

Ruido Tovar, a 10-song album released on digital platforms last May, is rooted in Mexican tropical music from the late ’70s and early ’80s, and in one of its most iconic figures, Tovar, who revolutionized cumbia by blending it with a Moog synthesizer. A native of the border city of Matamoros, he was known as “the idol of the crowds” for turning his voice into a symbol of popular identity.

“Rigo Tovar was the epitome of modernity,” says Lara. “He was more modern than anyone who calls themselves modern today.”

Described by the MIS leader as “a futuristic album” and “a long-awaited collaboration” with Álvarez, Ruido Tovar combines instrumental pieces with cumbias, classic tropical rhythms, psychedelic sounds, and experimental electronic music, as well as electric guitars and synthesizers. According to Lara, it was created in just one week at his studio in Mexico City in January 2025.

“The idea behind the album was to reflect on that period in tropical music when it was shifting from very large bands to very small ones,” explains Lara. “Back then, synthesizers were being used, and that changed the way tropical music was made — and Rigo Tovar was one of those artists.”

For this production, they also brought in rock star Beck, who has very close ties to the Mexican community, having grown up in the Latin neighborhoods of East L.A. With him, they recorded the song “Ritmo Babilonia,” a funky version of Tovar’s 1981 classic “El festival de mi pueblo.”

“I always thought I’d love to hear Beck sing this kind of song,” Lara says of the track, on which the American singer can be heard singing a chorus in Spanish. “It reminds you of Beck’s early albums, his hit ‘Loser,’ and those incredible moments in his career.”

In addition to the collaboration with Beck, there’s the track “Cumbia Beckiana,” which references the Californian musician’s style, which fuses rhythms more oriented toward hip-hop, electronic music and psychedelia. “What he did felt very natural — and it’s amazing how, the moment he opens his mouth and sings the first few lines, you realize it’s a Beck song,” adds Lara.

Other tracks included on the album are “Cumbia del Lobo,” “Ira (IA),” “Cumbia Fantasía,” and “Cumbia de los Estudiantes.”

This year, MIS also introduced David Byrne to cumbia in a cover of the British-American musician’s “Who Is the Sky?,” which also featured Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade. In addition, Lara composed the score for Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke’s new film Moscas, and has once again been commissioned by Disney Pixar for the second installment of the animated film Coco.

“I’ve been very fortunate to work at many different levels,” says Lara. “One thing has nothing to do with the other, but I think it all revolves around the idea of working with my community and where I come from.”

Check out the outfit’s upcoming tour dates below: