Canibalismo

from the multi-national mixing pot of brooklyn, new york's chicha libre return with their own take on peruvian chicha music mixing it with contemporary sounds from latin america and adding a touch of indie rock. this album of originals takes its cues from peruvian chicha, a style that put surf guitar, rainforest psychedelics and andean flavour to a cumbia beat with open-minded exuberance. chicha libre has learned from the unsung mad geniuses of the music - such as ranil and los shapis, then taken it as a springboard to join the international stream of tropical experimenters from colombia to argentina. as the legends of 60s and 70s rock sucked up and radically transformed blues and jazz, today's tropicalists are reshaping cumbia's sound to suit their own unabashed, unconventional tastes. for chicha libre, this means vintage rock sounds rumble past irrepressible bursts of percussion, the valkyries cavort to mellotrons, pan-latin beats merge with curious lyrics, and the occasional passerby joins in with guinean guitar or pedal steel riffs.