Dazed Mix: Lao

Hailing from Mexico City, Lao is a staple in the city’s thriving underground, known for his distinctive strain of deconstructed club music – a mix of Latin rhythms and trance-inducing dance cuts. He’s also a founding member of DJ collective and label NAAFI – behind releases for artists such as Debit, Gaika, Manuka Honey and Nick León – serving as a gathering place for queer artists and club music weirdos in the capital’s 2010s party scene, with legendary DIY raves held in abandoned buildings, cantinas and warehouses. In short, the kind of dark and moody spaces primed for all-night ragers. 

On his debut album Chapultepec, named after the large rock formation at the centre of the city’s largest biggest parks, the CDMX-based artist brings together over a decade of experience behind the decks to the forefront. Though NAAFI began life in the underground, many of its members such as Lao have gone on to global acclaim at some of the world’s most respected electronic music clubs and festivals, like Unsound, Sonar and CTM. Winding it back to his roots, Lao’s 19-track album channels the imaginative and timeless possibilities of Chapultepec in the form of exhilarating soundscapes that channel deep melodies and tribal percussive patterns inspired by jungle and rave. “It’s a love letter to CDMX dancefloors for the past 15 years,” he explains.

For his exclusive Dazed Mix, Lao shares an hour of mostly unreleased tracks – “it’s mostly my tracks with a lot of collaborations I’ve done in the past couple years,” he says. Listen to the mix below.

How’s your winter going – any plans? 

Lao: I’m making a lot of music, I'm in a moment of research and experimentation on reference pitches an microtonality, 

Congrats on the debut album! Can you tell me about it (the name/inspirations)? 

Lao: I took inspiration on Chapultepec park trying to create fictions. I’ve been working with traditional references and most of the time it leads to reference the past. For this work, I wanted to represent the imaginative possibilities of Chapultepec as a vital organ of Mexico City, a place where countless stories can take place. It’s also a love letter to CDMX dancefloors for the past 15 years.

OK zooming back, what are some of your earliest memories of music? 

Lao: I remember we didn’t had a record player or anything to play music at home, so music was something I always related to my dad’s car and travelling.

What would you say are some of your most formative musical experiences? 

Lao: Moving to CDMX at 15 (2001) and I remember a friend invited me to a sound art / electronic music event where I saw for the first time someone DJing jungle and someone performing an experimental clicks and cuts set in his laptop. At that moment I realized that the person who plays the music is not necessarily the one who composed it. I remember I fell in love with electronic music that day and that same night I started my path into becoming an electronic music artist.

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?

Lao: Telling someone that you gotta be pleasant with the crown when performing.

And the best advice?

Lao: Telling younger artists from anywhere to come to CDMX and spend some time.

What are you listening to at the moment? 

Lao: I’m listening a lot of Aleksi Perala’s Colundi series, also I’m revisiting the Mille Plateaux, Ritornell and Raster Noton catalogues. That’s what I was into when I was 17 and when I learned that you could make music with a computer.

Tell us about your Dazed mix. 

Lao: It’s a good introduction to Chapultepec. It’s mostly my tracks with a lot of collaborations I’ve done in the past couple years. Almost half of the tracks are still unreleased.

How were you feeling when making it? 

Lao: I was feeling really nervous at the beginning. I always get that when I present new music that no one has listened to.

Tracklist

1. Omaar – “Mechanic A.I.” 
2. Viiaan – “Ssiento (Lao Remix)” 
3. Phelimuncasi – “Private Party” 
4. Lao – “Guasón” 
5. Lao – “Chapultepec” 
6. Nikki Nair – “Cclluubb” 
7. Dj Fucci – “Chinchilla” 
8. Lao & Zutzut – “Momentos De XTC (CYPHR Remix)” 
9. Lao & Zutzut – “Untitled Unreleased Track” 
10. Lao & Dj Fucci – “Guacamaya” 
11. Lao & Pearson Sound – “Untitled Unreleased Track” 
12. Egyptrixx – “Water (Fraxinus Remix)” 
13. Lao & Imaabs – “Untitled Unreleased Track” 
14. Lao – “Equinoccio” 
15. Lao – “Untitled Unreleased Track” 
16. Lao & Wasted Fates – “Sonambulo (Unreleased) Nunu – Love Trak”
17. Lao – “Humedad” 
18. Lao – “Manantial” 
19. Lao & Imaabs – “Untitled Unreleased Track Basic Rhythm – Moonlight Flit” 
20. Lao, Cid Rim & Baauer – “Untitled Unreleased Track”
21. Moke – “Girls Got”
22. Omaar – ”Drum Temple (Lao Remix)”