After last year's release on Crammed of the superb CHICHA LIBRE album Sonido Amazonico (wherein the Brooklyn band performed originals and covers inspired by chicha, the brand of psychedelic surf cumbia which emerged in Peru in the late '60s, and was named after a corn liquor drink favoured by the Incas), it's time to go back to the source with this excellent collection of vintage chicha.

The Roots of Chicha Vol.2 - which follows the hugely revelatory first volume compiled by CHICHA LIBRE main man Olivier Conan for release on his Brooklyn-based label Barbes Records - showcases eleven bands and sixteen tracks recorded from 1967 to 1981: music at once familiar and exotic that's rooted in the changing sounds fostered by the worldwide musical revolution that took place in the late '60s, yet still sounds oddly timeless.

Here's Olivier Conan to give a little more context:

"The impact the first volume of The Roots of Chicha had in Peru came as a big surprise. For decades, chicha had been scorned as the trashiest expression of Lima's slums. While the music certainly lived on with the working class, many journalists, students, and musicians had also become interested in the music and used the release of the album as an excuse to explore what had become an obscure chapter of their popular culture. News that a gringo was interested in chicha found its way Peru's mainstream press. That this gringo was also playing in a band (CHICHA LIBRE) that paid tribute to the music, gave it an additional air of exoticism.

This second volume is not a sequel. It's an attempt to rectify some of the biases and inaccuracies of the first volume. Volume two focuses more on the urban aspect of the music and less on the Amazonian side. It highlights some lesser-known bands, and it also broadens its scope to include some of the early Cuban-influenced groups who would play such a crucial role in the elaboration of the chicha sound, as well a.......
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