Paging Mr. Tarantino, the soundtrack for your next film is ready... No joke, The Roots Of Chicha is all that and a bag of banana chips. Chicha is urban cowboy music from Peru in the late sixties and early 70s. According to compiler Oliver Conan, this music was never taken seriously on a critical or an official cultural level, and this volume represents the first (international) collection devoted to it. In the press release, Conan waxes enthusiastically about the demography, socioeconomic milieu and the resolutely pop dynamic of the music. He relates that the ingredients in Chicha are almost entirely foreign (like Canadian music?? I kid, I kid because I love...). The main ingredient is Cumbia - for my money, Colombia's most addictive export - mixed with Cuban rhythms, twin surf guitars, greasy wah pedal sounds and a smidgen of vintage Moogery. One track even has a lazy tape echo floating through the mix, which combined with the Andean melodies of the vocals sounds like the Rotary Connection. This comp is badass all the way through, with fascinating approaches to electric guitar which speak to Afro-American influences and to the tradition of Peruvian guitar virtuosity. This is yet another example of the worldwide youth culture of the 60s manifesting itself through druggy pop hybrids (RIYL all the Vampisoul Peruvian grooves of the same period). I'm looking forward to Conan's band Chicha Libre dropping their debut in January '08.
By David Dacks