After the Mexican Revolution, which spanned a decade starting in 1910, one of the first orders of business for Mexican artists was to establish a cultural identity which distanced the country from its colonial history. Muralists started creating their best-known works, writers were inspired to create a new Mexican reality, and composer Carlos Chavez turned not to Europe, but to his country’s indigenous heritage in writing music for the newly established national orchestra.

That era seems to be starting over again today, as the most adventurous and creative Mexican musicians turn inward to sample styles such as norteño, cumbia and folk music to establish yet another cultural identity for Mexico.

Camilo Lara is one of those musicians crafting a new sound for his country. His Mexican Institute of Sound recordings are clearly of this new millennium, but he also captures traces of everything from early-20th-century corridos to techno.

To understand the ideas behind this cultural mashup, we invited Lara in for a Guest DJ session, and his playlist was impressive: British electro-pop, old-school cumbia and even the out-of-this-world arrangements of producer and bandleader Juan Garcia Esquivel all reside in the sonic library that is his inspiration.

So sit back and listen in as Lara talks about his music, his influences and his Mexico.

Read more at Alt Latino