First question: What is »Mexican Tecno Pop«? Listening to it, that pretty much answers itself. It’s the Mexican answer to New Wave, post-punk and the like. Second question: Why has there been very little to hear of it so far? The compilation answers this question, at least indirectly. The label Dark Entries announces »Back Up« as the first vinyl compilation of its kind. Most of the material comes from another compilation from 2005 that was only released on CD at the time, »Backup: Expediente Tecno Pop«. As it seems, there was not too much else in this field, apart from individual compilations by the artists involved. After the surprise that people in Mexico apparently also liked synthesizers and drum machines in the eighties and recorded with them on their own in home studios, there is also the slightly stunned reaction that a good part of it doesn’t sound stylistically all that different from the European and North American colleagues. After all, Liaisons Dangereuses or Esplendor Geométrico also sang in Spanish. Most of the contributions remain harmonic-tonal, projects like Cou Cou Bazar allow themselves a few dissonant extravagances that are reminiscent of Devo from afar. Similarities or not: the world of New Wave seems to have become a little bigger.
Yukimi
For You
Ninja Tune