The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru

Many of us are familiar with South American rock, but as this disc will demonstrate there was a lot more going on below the Equator. Chicha developed out of cumbia in the 1960s, mainly in the Amazonas region, and used guitars where traditional cumbia used an accordion; if I was to compare it with anything, I'd say it was most like guitar-driven highlife, with maybe a little bit of a Caribbean sound to it as well and hints of Andean melodies. The music presented on this disc is actually not all psychedelic, but it's consistently good; spacey tracks like the opener "Sonido Amazonico" (reminiscent of Bollywood instrumentals) and the outstanding "Muchachita del Oriente" (almost proggy at moments) mix with more traditional-sounding ones like "Ya Se Ha Muerto mi Abuelo" (which sort of reminds me of the Buena Vista Social Club, if they had a Farfisa.) Also worthy of note is "Mi Morena Rebelde" by Eusebio y su Banjo; I'm not sure what kind of banjo Eusebio's playing but it brings a particularly unusual sound to the table. This is a fairly easy album to find, but if you can't get it locally it's definitely worth ordering.