Roots Of Chicha 2: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru

Roots of Chicha 2: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru
Psychedelic (kinda – but definitely with their hearts in the right place) Cumbias. Named after home-brewed Andean hooch, and mostly confined to the deepest barrios of Lima (as opposed to volume one, which headed more to the hills – but that seems a pretty subtle distinction.) Tracks seem to get rather more… capable? musically as we go along. Probably not surprising that the guitars are often a bit off, but the percussion is always spot on and then some. If you like mad rock ‘n’ roll with lots of flavor, check out everything here.
1. 3:20 **midtempo with high-pitched guitar, clibbity-clopping percussion. Instrumental. Ooh, a fuzz guitar moment! Mostly pretty repetitive, but delightfully dischordant.
2. 2:47 **uptempo, a bit jazzy, with scratcher. Nice timbales.
3. 3:07 **dramatic flourish intro, then slow dance with sweet tenor vocals, then midtempo call and response cumbia – sounds a bit Afro-Cuban.
4. 3:33 ***slow, swingy hip-wiggler, nice instrumentation, sweet solo vocals.
5. 2:50 **uptempo gallop with lots of percussion, on-key guitar, far-away sounding vocals.
6. 2:48 ****excellent – midtempo wobble with shrieks and whammy bar.
7. 2:50 ****midtempo with sincere sounding vocals and a variety of psychedelicky guitar sounds.
8. 3:16 *****absolutely manic romp with completely home-made instrument and production sounds, but brilliant hand percussion. Instrumental. Guitar solo will eat your brain. Farfisa will clean up the leftovers.
9. 3:28 ****a bit uptempo, vocals recorded either in a bathroom or over the loudspeaker at a bullring.
10. 2:14 ***a bit uptempo with high guitar and lots of percussion, instrumental.
11. 3:02 ***uptempo gallop with quite creditable vocals.
12. 3:04 *****mad percussion, farfisa and fuzz. Yay! Nuts!
13. 3:51 ***dramatic flourish intro, then midtempo lopassed bounce, probably recorded at a bar VERY late at night.
14. 3:09 *****upbeat, VERY bouncy and VERY drunk. Nice female vocals.
15. 2:34 *****surf cumbia instrumental – really nicely done.
16. 2:48 *****great surf guitar sound, midtempo swingy groove, chorus all about “black gold”. Great stuff.