Chicha Libre

When: Sat., May 12, 8 p.m.

Price: $16-$20

Brooklyn-based singer and cuatro player Olivier Conan founded Chicha Libre to play a nearly forgotten style of Peruvian pop that merged surfy guitars and squiggly keyboards with pepped-up cumbia beats. But since chicha's borders were pretty permeable to begin with, Conan and his five confederates were free to transform the ensemble's music into something more international—and following their varied tastes, they soon did. The title of their new album, Canibalismo (Barbés), refers to a 1928 text by Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade called Manifesto Antropófago, which celebrates cultural appropriation and was adopted by the tropicalia movement. Chicha Libre seems to have taken it to heart as well, judging from the way the new album's tunes (most of which are band originals) stir together Jamaican dub production, 60s lounge licks, BBC Radiophonic Workshop-style electronics, and Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyries. This is the sextet's first visit to Chicago in three years, fresh off a South American tour. —Bill Meyer