Monday, October 18, 2010

#204 VA - The Roots of Chicha (Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru)

Again, I read about the 2nd disc in this series on Dusted, but ended up listening to this one. October is apparently also the month of indirect recs from that site.

Given that this was made in the 60's and 70's, in South America, its no wonder that this sounds like Brazilian Tropicalia, which I'm so very fond of. Lots of Salsa/Samba-esque rhythms, guitar lines, shouted vocals, the occaisional horns, and an overall rough, high-energy, garagey sound. But this is a lot more guitar-driven, more intricate and surfey in its guitar lines, and a lot more organ-drenched, while being lighter on horns. The overall impression, relative to Tropicalia, is that this is less arty, more 50's-influenced, more down in the grit, and very nearly as awesome.

If you haven't heard any Tropicalia stuff, get you A Brazilian Revolution in Sound, and then listen to this, and then rest your ass, because you probably just rocked it off. Ok, ok, or don't. Relative to Nuggets-style 60's garage rock, this is more diverse, more intricate, more communal, and often better. If you haven't heard that either, it sounds like a rad bunch of guys making super inventive music, full of great guitars and organ textures and hooks and energy.

Expect to see the other album in this series reviewed here soon, since I'll be hitting that, plus finding out what other awesome shit was going on in the world in the 60's, since it totally rivals what was happening in America.

If you hadn't gathered, I liked this 4.5/5

No comments:

Post a Comment