JUANECO Y SU COMBO
MASTERS OF CHICHA 1 (Barbes Records BR0020)

This is a disc from one of the outstanding bands on the 2007 Roots of Chicha album. Four of the cuts on there were by Juaneco and now we get a whole disc (including those four over again). So do you need more psychedelic cumbia? It's up to you. The sound is great; the band kicks it up with their haunted "Riders on the Storm" organ, a cumbia bass that wont quit, and a bouncy psychedelic lead guitarist. The band was formed by Juan Wong Popolizio, a Chinese-Peruvian sax player. Juan's son Juaneco, an accordionist, took over in 1966. Juaneco recruited Noé Fachin, a virtuoso criollo guitarist in his 40s, to be main songwriter and lead guitarist. Though rock and roll was beginning to penetrate the Andes in its movement to global domination, the local radio played cumbia and Peruvian criollo standards. But they also caught Brasilian radio which broadcast carimbo, an African-influenced rhythm. Juaneco traded his accordion for a Farfisa. They adapted folklore and Noé was inspired by Hank B. Marvin of the Shadows and Nokie Edwards of the Ventures in his guitar work. Thus was born the Amazonian wave of pop music. The group was drawn to the local Shipibo indian lore, and while none of them was of Indian origin they dressed in the indians' costumes (perhaps as a gimmick) and indulged in ayahuasca, the hallucinogenic drug used by the shamans for self-knowledge. Sadly half the band was wiped out in a plane crash after a recording session in Lima. Forty years have passed since these sides were recorded so it is a bit quaint, but it is full of catchy hooks, and the musicianship is excellent.

CHICHA LIBRE
SONIDO AMAZONICO! (Barbes Records BR0017)

Hot on the heels of The Roots of Chicha we get an outing from a singular outfit, Brooklyn-based Chicha Libre, who have mastered the style of psychedelic Amazonian cumbias which originated in Peru in the late 60s, complete with Electrovox (a cross between a Hohner organ and an accordion), Farfisa and Moog keyboards, guitars and percussion. It's the Surfaris with a Latin beat (though they occasionally sing in French). They kick off with a cover off Los Mirlos' "Sonido Amazonico" which was also the opening track on Roots, but then throw some of their own compositions into the mix and the results are wonderful. Like the originators, they create goofy cumbia versions of light classical music (check out "Für Elise" on Roots). Their take-offs on Ravel's "Pavane" and Eric Satie's "Gnossiènne (Little know-it-all)" are delightful. They cover Gershon Kingsley's (rather than James Brown's) mildy irritating Moog ditty "Popcorn." There's also some weird ambient noise thrown in for flavour. (The liner notes thank Oscar Noriega who was "electrocuted somewhere between tracks 12 and 13 on the streets of Veracruz." I hope he survived!) If you like daring contemporary bands like Los Amigos Invisibles, Dengue Fever, Nortec Collective, Chico Science's band Naçào Zumbi, Os Mutantes, or Ozomatli, you will love this. Indeed if you dug Roots this is an excellent sequel. It's decidedly postmodern music, and, like they suggest, "the pop debris of three continents."

THE ROOTS OF CHICHA
PSYCHEDELIC CUMBIAS FROM PERU (Barbes Records)

There's a real buzz about this album, a compilation of psychedelic cumbias from the 60s. It's fun and repetitious at the same time. Listening to it all the way through is like chugging beer, you know you are getting intoxicated but having a great time and damn the consequences. Surprisingly the origin is Peru, a country not associated with the loping cumbia beat, found more often in the Northern hemisphere. Lots of warbly wah wah guitar, woops & other shagadelic effects, pentatonic Andean vocals & tricky drumming keep it loping along. Between 1966 and 1978 the music evolved in the shanty-towns of Lima as migrant workers from the oil-fields of the Amazon brought the instruments of Yanqui rock to the too-tired-to-dance cumbia and folktunes of home. Electric guitar and Farfisa replaced accordeon. There'd a far-horizon cowboy gaze of the Ennio Morricone type behind this sound. On the other hand, "Para Elisa" is a hot instrumental take on Beethoven's "For Elsie" (though the bridge goes somewhere else), also plucked from a wiry electric guitar. The brittle twiddly lead, reminiscent of Venetian mandolin as well as Surfaris' Stratocaster rock, dominates with very interesting & easy-to-follow vocals. A crude Moog is teased out on Los Mirlos' "Muchachitas del Oriente"-- totally gratuitous but probably considered hip at the time. The "ghost riders" bass redeems it. "Mi morena rebelde" sports what sounds like an electrified tres -- it's a banjo! More shagadelic woops herald "Si me quieres" by Los Hijos del Sol with fine bongo: a relatively straight cumbia. This is the first time this music has been released outside of Peru, and it is probably hard to find there. It is truly a delight.

NOVALIMA
AFRO (MR BONGO MRBCD041)

Afro-Peruvian music has really caught on since Susana Baca first broached the subject to our ears. It's the black music of Peru, handed down by former slaves for centuries. I don't recall seeing any black people when I toured Peru in 1979 and I only heard the "El Condor pasa" type of pan-pipe stuff that seems to crop up in many of the world's subway systems now. But it sounds more African than hybrids found in Brasil, Colombia or Haiti. Novalima have gone back to the traditional repertoire and added some simple programming to make it more palatable to younger audiences. Purists won't like this. Asphyxionados of house music will find the programming tame and simplistic. The sound is clean however, with bass added to the traditional acoustic guitar and rumba box or cajon (a lidded crate that is alternately slammed and slapped). There's congas and other percussion, and a guest trumpeter and occasional keyboard. "Zamba Malato" will be familiar not only from Susana Baca but Pepe Vasquez' excellent RITMO DE NEGROS. This album is ultimately more pop than traditional which is not a bad thing but its grounding in the Afro-Peruvian black music is the most interesting part and the pop sheen tends toward the vapid.

PEPE VASQUEZ
RITMO DE NEGROS (Network)

What keeps me interested in contemporary music is constantly challenging my assumptions about music and exploring new areas. Susana Baca opened up my ears to the music of Black Peru and now I learn that her best song, "No Valentin," was written by Pepe Vasquez. His first international release, RITMO DE NEGROS (on the excellent Network label from Frankfurt) is very much in the Afro-Caribbean vein and includes a few things that are familiar from Baca's performances. The Peruvian slaves were half a continent away from the Caribbean but of course had the same musical thread that connected them back to West Africa. The lando of Peru and Brazil has been traced back to the londu dance from Angola. When the Spanish outlawed traditional African instruments such as marimbas or drums with skin heads, the slaves improvised and used wooden crates and boxes that developed into the cajon. Another indigenous Peruvian instrument, the cajita, developed out of the collection box in Catholic churches. The player opens and slams the lid and also beats on it with a drumstick. The scraper is not a gourd, but the jawbone of an ass (quijada de burro) which buzzes as it is scraped.

There's a great sense of spontaneity but also tight interplay between the singer and musicians on this album. They really go to town on folk tunes like "Zamba Malato" (which Baca also performs), a mid-tempo ballad with a lot of space for rhythmic complexity. Vasquez is the leading singer and composer in Peru. Listening to this album it's easy to see why. The large band is uncredited but there's guitar, horns and keyboards as well as a host of percussion and the wonderful fluid vocals of Vasquez coasting on top.