The Cumbia sound these days is huge across South America, engaging with modern technology, extending from Mexico to Bolivia to the US and even as far flung as Melbourne. Originating in Columbia, it’s music that has an ability to fuse to each countries traditions and so too for Peru, where this collection comes from. It surfaced here in the mid 60’s and developed the moniker ‘chicha,’ formed in the oil rich outposts of the Peruvian Amazon and named after a corn based liquor.
There’s a real fusion of styles at play here, referencing mambo, fox-trot, and rumba, with the electric guitar extremely prevalent, giving the music a real 60’s psychedelic feel. It originates from the influence of pop music from the US and UK, with guitarists discovering their pedals creating fuzz, wah-wah, tremolo, delays and overdrives. It results in these twangy surf sounds over the cantering hand percussion and shuffling rhythms. In the main it’s instrumental, eschewing the accordion for the guitar, reveling in their thin wispy riffs. They’re mostly covers of traditional folk melodies from the Andes and the Amazon, yet you don’t have to be familiar with the source to appreciate this collection of Peruvian obscurities. There’s a real life and energy to the music as it’s a sound in flux. Every song here is an experiment of some kind, yet without forgoing the incredible groove.
Despite the uniqueness and boundary pushing qualities of this Western influenced indigenous music, there was only one true agenda for these bands, and that was to make the people dance. It was popular music, not feted by the critics, in fact not even deemed worthy of any kind of analysis. Until now. So some 40 odd years on this music it still feels new, raw and incredibly vital.
Bob Baker Fish
