When journalists in Lima want to write about Chicha, the psychedelic-meets-Amazon
music once popular in Peru, ironically, they place a call to Brooklyn's
Chicha Libre. The group is reviving the style that was popular among
Peruvian indigenous and mestizos migrants in the 1970s, but frowned
down upon by the middle class and mainstream.
Chicha Libre's debut album, Sonido
Amazonico (released by Barbès
Records on
March 25, 2008), features cover songs from the era alongside originals
arranged not only in the sound of the time, but using the spirit
of Chicha's syncretism. The result is a slightly updated take on
the genre: a sound indebted to the Amazonian pioneers, but relevant
to 21st century Brooklyn.
The name Chicha comes from a type of corn liquor favored by the
Incas in pre-Colombian days – It is also the name given to
a new wave of Peruvian cumbias, which started out in the 70's. Cumbias
Amazonicas, as they were first called, were loosely inspired by Colombian
accordion-driven cumbias but incorporated the distinctive pentatonic
scales of Andean melodies, some Cuban son, and the psychedelic sounds
of surf guitars, farfisa organs and moog synthesizers. Chicha Libre
uses a similar instrumentation an draws on most of the same sources.
Barbès Records is proud to have been the first label to promote
Chicha outside of Peru - The Roots of Chicha, which documents the
best Peruvian groups of the 70's has proven to be a success in the
US and is now being released in Japan, Australia and Europe. Mainstream
Peruvian publications have written about the cd, shedding light on
a subculture they had never before acknowledged. Barbès Records
intends to continue promoting the genre with the help of Chicha
Libre,
and with further releases, including a cd of Juaneco
y su Combo which
should be available in August of 2008.
Chicha Libre includes musicians associated with the Barbès scene (a club co-owned by two of the musicians in the band: Olivier
Conan and Vincent Douglas) and includes Joshua Camp (One Ring Zero)
on Electravox; Olivier Conan (Las Rubias del Norte) on Cuatro and
vocals; Nicholas Cudahy (Combustible Edison) on bass, Vincent Douglas
(Bébé Eiffel) on guitar and veteran percussionists
Greg Burrows (Andy Statman) and Timothy Quigley (Romashka, Zagnut
Orkestar).
Check out some recent press
VILLAGE
VOICE :
03/26 - http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0813,the-brooklyn-per,389067,22.html
CMJ :
03/27- http://prod1.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=61547427
If you haven't received your copy of Sonido Amazonico! contact
us at Barbes@earthlink.net
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