Los de Abajo (band)

Since then they have expanded to eight members and widened their musical influences to include rock, salsa, reggae, ska, cumbia, Son Jarocho and banda sinaloense.

The band was unable to secure a record deal in Mexico, as their music was considered to be insufficiently commercial, and ended up releasing their first album Latin Ska Force independently.

However, in 1999 they secured a deal with David Byrne's Luaka Bop record label to release their international debut, Los de Abajo.

Later they were joined by Luis Robles "Gori" (electric bass), Mariano "El Ché Pereira" (saxophones), Gabriel Elias (percussion), Daniel Vallejo (saxophones), Canek Cabrera (trumpet) and Carlos Alberto Cortez Ortega (El COCA, his initials) (bassist).

The follow-up Cybertropic Chilango Power was released in 2002 and won BBC Radio 3's World Music Award for the Americas.