Lest the faithful mourn, any word of chicha's passing is happily premature, thanks not least to Barbès Records (the house that brought forth Hazmat Modine) and Chicha Libre, gringo Brooklyn's contemporary shout-out to chicha antigua (roots chicha), purveyed via quirky instrumentation like the Venezuelan cuatro, a vintage Hohner Electravox (whose accordion-like appearance belies its purely electronic organ-like sound), and beaucoup Latin percussion. Consider Los Destellos' Para Elisa for a mind-bending cumbia-fication of Beethoven's Für Elise, and Los Diablos Rojos' Sácalo, Sácalo, a frenetic guaracha that takes La Bamba through quantum leaps-the latter are still cracking some four decades later. The Roots Of Chicha presents 17 tropical bastard wonders by six of the era's most prolific cdrootsian chicha bands. The transistor radio's spread, labor migration, and the predatory drive for primitive capitalist accumulation also brought Colombian cumbias into a hybrid head-on with Peruvian criollo music, Afro-Cuban rhythms, airy pentatonic Andean tunes, northern psychedelia, Dick Dale surf guitars, tinny portable keyboards, and sundry electronic effects.
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