PSYCHEDELIC PERUVIAN: "The Roots of Chicha" Various Artists (Barbes)

Dance bands in rural Peru in the late 1960s tossed together Colombia's cumbia rhythms, Andean pentatonic scales and the emerging sounds of U.S. psychedelic pop to come up with a music for local laborers to blow off some steam to.

Ignored by the upper class, the music was named "chicha" after a popular corn drink. The music here has cumbia's characteristic clippity-clop rhythm with Afro-Cuban percussion, but has vintage wah-wah guitars and Farfisa organs swirling atop the multi-cultural pile of sounds.

Not for everyone, this quirky, low-fi collection is an interesting look into some overlooked party music from a little-known corner of the world. 

-- Marty Lipp