No Manchester: Mexico Goes Morrissey is a new collection of cover songs by Morrissey and The Smiths by Mexrrissey featuring Camilo Lara of the Mexican Institute of Sound.

Mexrrissey was recorded in Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona, was produced by Lara with arrangements by Lara and Sergio Mendoza. The album was mixed by Jack Lahana, winner of multiple Grammys for his work with Phoenix and Daft Punk. “No Manchester” is a Mexican slang phrase meaning “No Way” or “Are you kidding me?” but more than that it means that these songs, born in Manchester, have grown up, changed their hair and the clothes they wear and are living in Mexico under an assumed name.

According to the Mexrrissey web site:

Live the band performs as a seven piece with a revolving and evolving line-up of the whos who of the whats what of the new Mexican music scene, which includes underground legend Chetes (Zurdok) on guitar, Jay De La Cueva (Moderatto /Titán) on bass, Ceci Bastida (Tijuana No) on keyboards, Adan Jodorowsky (Adanowsky) on guitar, Liber Teran (Los de Abajo) on guitar, Alejandro Flores (Café Tacuba’s favourite violin player), Alex Gonzales on trumpet (Twin Tones), Ricardo Najera on drums (Furland), Sergio Mendoza and Jacob Valenzuela (both from Calexico) on vibes and accordion and trumpet respectively and always Camilo Lara adding his trademark sampling and electronics. Vocals are shared between four of the band who also add other flavours from a range of traditional instruments.

Andy Wood, Director of the La Linea Festival in London approached Camilo Lara with the initial idea to put together Mexrrissey. Andy says, “ It just felt like time. I had a sense of the feeling for Morrissey in Mexico and the way that his music could connect with so much in Mexican music. It was time to return the love and Camilo was the man who could round up the right posse of dirty pretty things.” Camilo takes up the story, “I always thought that there were these invisible lines between what Morrissey and Manchester represents and what Mexico City and Mexican pop culture has. And if these are tiny coincidences, we’re making them a little bit bigger on this occasion with a concert of broken hearts and forgotten dreams.”

Below, listen to No Manchester.