Last night, Los Amparito snagged the award for Best New Artist from Mexico’s Indie-O awards. And deservedly so!

Dubbed a Mexican Animal Collective by bloggers, I’d rather categorize them as a Mexican original — a mix of the fruity, light-hearted sample-collaging of The Books; the buggy, bizarre melodies of Of Montreal; and the fuzzed-out glo-fi of MTV IGGY favorite Toro Y Moi.

Named for a Guadalajara specialty sandwich — how cheeky! — the quarted of knob-twisters is helmed by Carlos Pesina, who is well known in Mexico’s indie scene for his electro act as Pepepe. Pesina himself says his tunes swim in the gulf between “Huarache-gaze (shoe gaze) or Mariachi-wave.” Still, there’s an Animal Collective influence in there somewhere — after all, he did cover “Brothersport.” (My favorite track of ’08, natch.)

What I really love about this band is that they’re not creating this fuzzy, wall-of-sound sound with smooth synths or operatic choruses — they’re sampling glitchy little mariachi bands and ’60s pop riffs. There’s a hint of Atlas Sound’s “Walkabout” in here, a prickly sound that’s just barely smoothed down by incantatory lyrics. I’d play this at my next rooftop party…

The band is just getting going, without even a debut LP to their name. (Labels, take note! They’re unsigned!) Head to their MySpace page for tunes. Or check them out at a few international gigs this summer:

Jun 17 Sónar Festival 2010 Barcelona, -, SPAIN
Jun 18 VILLAGE UNDERGROUND London, UNITED KINGDOM
Jun 19 OLD BLUE LAST London, UNITED KINGDOM
Jul 1 Bar Atlántico DF, DF
Sep 25 Babel Festival Bellinzona SWITZERLAND

Watch the sun-drenched video for their track, “Por Medio de la Lectura:

Photo Courtesy of Los Amparito