|
|
 |
CD Review
|
| Click Here to go back. |
Sing Out!, CD Review >>
Juaneco Y Su Combo
Masters of Chicha, Vol. 1
Barbés 0020
While it is supposedly a bad time for major labels, it has never been better for the indies--and that's a beautiful thing. Take the Brooklyn-based club Barbés, for one. During any night of the week, you can mosey into this smallish bar and find some of the most fascinating international music around going on: Hungarian tanchez, French mussette, Mandingo guitar, and what the space has become locally famous for--chicha. The Peruvian sound of the '60s and '70s, which combined cumbia, rock and Andean folk, has become a staple of the Park Slope club, most notably via their excellent record label. There is no general guideline to what they release (they've already put out excellent albums by local Balkan-band Slavic Soul Party, and the exceptional Americana outfit Hazmat Modine), but they stumbled upon something special with their compilation of chicha a few years back. Since then, they put forth an effort by a newer phenomenon, Chicha Libre, and now this collection from the archives of Juaneco Y Su Combo, who is to chicha what Os Mutantes is to tropicália. Throw in a bit of the Village People: while no one was from the indigenous Shipibo Indian tribe, they dressed like them and sang songs in honor of ayahuasca (the peyote of local shamans). Members did drink it, or so the liner notes read, and given the surf rocking, electric organ crazed sounds of many of these 16 tracks, it's not hard to believe that these boys were tripping hard in the jungle. And it's just as easy to believe that you'll be as fascinated as I am by this excellent excavation of faraway sound that's far out and far too good to pass up.---- DB 03/15/09
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
