Music from Peru S/D

I am in Peru again, as detailed in this thread:

TITTW sleeve goes to Peru

I wanted to start this thread last time but I never got around to it.

Some styles: In the north, near Columbia, they have criollo and Afro-Peruvian. The criollo usually features a box drum and is closer to salsa from what I remember. Haven´t heard any of the Afro-Peruvian. I´d like to know more about both of these.

Salsa is big here, they have bars devoted to salsa dancing and radio stations that play nothing but. The stereotypical "El Condor Pasa" kind of stuff is called folklorica or Musica Andina. You can hear this stuff live in bars all over Cuzco, but it is usually augmented with electronic instruments. The other night we heard an excellent, atypical arrangement of the aforementioned chestnut done with acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric bass, a set of Roland electro-drums, and a dude with around six different kinds of panpipes/recorders/etc. hanging around his neck.

The true Peruvian style in the mountain regions is called Waynos or Huaynos (Quechua has no standard spelling). It is instantly identifiable once you get to know it, and reminds me of country music if it was from China. High pitched voices, repetitive melodies, sentimental themes. Arhoolie has reissued a 2-volume series of Waynos from 78´s recorded in the 40´s and 50´s that are excellent.

I downloaded a couple of albums by some 70´s psych band (El Chelo or something) but haven´t listened to them yet. I´m sure there´s dozens more. Also big here is chillout style stuff with electronica beats over trad melodies. And they sure do love bossanova style versions of classic rock (as well as the straight USA FM fodder). This morning on a crowded bus I heard some crazy bottom-of-the-top-40 hits from the 80´s that I swear I had never heard before (some song about Ma Baker and her gang, also what sounded like DeBarge). Emo has really gotten big since I was here 18 months ago, I see a lot of kids sporting the t-shirts and styles.

Anyway, Rockist Scientist to thread, and maybe GOTT PUNCH has heard some of the psych. I´m also going to be using this thread to update about stuff I hear around the region during the next 4 months.

I wish I new more about Peruvian music. I know some salsa, and I like the Afro-Peruvian music I've heard, but I don't know much about.

Are you familiar with Melcochita? Probably the most famous salsa vocalist of Peruvian origin (at least outside Peru):

He's also a comedian.

That has a very sentimental intro., but it gets good as it goes on.

For Peruvian psych i would recommend Traffic Sound, Laghonia and We All Together.

yma sumac

I've heard that Cuban timba (which you might simply hear as salsa, if you aren't familiar with it as a separate genre or sub-genre) and reggaeton are big in Peru. Any impressions of whether that's accurate/uptodate? (Not like you know what's going on in all of Peru.)

Rockist I´m not sure but I will keep my ears peeled in those directions. Any timba suggestions that I could check out?

I forgot about Yma, sorry Yma!

There was also a really popular singer who died in a car crash when I was last here named Muñaquita Sally. I read in the paper a few days ago that they were gonna make a TV special about her life for the US market?!? Sometimes I wonder about my translating skills.

Thanks for the fast responses folks!

Also, I would highly recommend this http://barbesrecords.com/rootsofchicha.html. comp for Chicha music. People call it psych, however, it's really not that psychedelic, it's more like vintage cumbia rhythms , melodic surf guitar riffs with slight tinges of fuzz. Anyways, the stuff is great, if you could find the original LP's from the artists on that comp that would be something !

oscar reminds me that I meant to say "cumbia" in my original post, not "criollo" which is the food style of the North.

also I looked in some flea markets last time I was here but all I found was a Shocking Blue single (they are HUGE here) and a Perez Prado LP. I hope to find more this time.

what i want to know is what is that big string instrument that looks like 1/2 harp + 1/2 acoustic guitar is called? saw a couple bros playing those and was really stoked on it.

it is called an Andean harp if we are thinking of the same thing.

they also have this really cool tiny mandolin-type instrument called a chirango that is made from armadillo shells and has double strings for harmonics.

just posted by dow on the reissues thread:

Telegraph Avenue got their start when lead
singer, Bo Ichikawa, returned home to Peru after a six-month stint in
San Francisco (if you hadn't already guessed by their obvious choice of
band name) and their 1971 debut album soon became the best-selling rock
album of the year. Here heavy distorted guitar mixed with Latin bass
and percussion meld to create a kind of south-of-the-equator Latin
groove meets West Coast psych with a slightly poppier feel. All lyrics
are sung in English. The band unfortunately split after the release of
just one more album, but the drummer and singer would soon join up with
two Argentine friends to form another great band, the South American
band of the '70s, Tarkus.

(...)

Speaking of Tarkus... In the beginning of 1972, Walo Carrillo drummer from Peruvian band Telegraph Avenue
receives the visit of two friends from Argentina: Guillermo Van Lacke and Daro Gianella. This trio begins to play some music at Walo's place.
Finally, Alex Nathanson joins them as the singer, but now singing in Spanish. Thus, these two ex-Telegraph Avenue members with two Argentine musicians
begin to play heavy rock music in Lima. These friends called themselves Tarkus, and they were definitively too loud for the scene of that time. This
eponymous album was recorded on eight channels in only five weeks with all original tunes. Their album was the first heavy rock LP from South
America.

Killer guitar styles, yelling vocals mixed perfectly with a deep bass-lines and powerful drums.
This album is the top hard to find original record in South America.

I got that Tarkus last week. Great record.

oscar reminds me that I meant to say "cumbia" in my original post, not "criollo" which is the food style of the North.

Huh? My Spanish/English dictionary says "criollo" means "native" or "creole." Yes I know you meant to also include "cumbia" but I have also seen the terms "Musica criolla" and "musica negra" used to refer to the likes of Eva Allyon, Peru Negra, and Susana Baca (I recommend them all)

http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:YpUjDWhmVNsJ:www.acap-peru.org/newsletter/2008-11/a-beginners-guide-to-peruvian-music.html+Peru+afro+criolo&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

The American and Canadian Association of Peru describes the Afro-Peruvian box drum that drummers sit on and pat and bang with their hands as a cajon:

The Cajón – This percussion instrument, of Afro-Peruvian origins, is used in most coastal variations of the marinera, as well as música criolla (Creole) and música negra (Afro Peruvian genres in general). The instrument is crafted from a wooden box which features a soundhole at the back. The musician sits on top and slaps on the front surface with the palms of his hands. Although it is simple in appearance, the instrument has built up a following outside Peru, recently being included as a part of flamenco.

For stuff that has more of a Afro- Peruvian feel, the early records by
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabuca_Granda are incredible.

Oops that should read "Peru Negro." And what is the difference between "criollo" and "criolla" and "criolo" as I have seen them all and I am not sure when the last vowel is used to designate male or female and when you use "l" versus "ll".

So does "criollo" refer to food AND other Afro-Peruvian cultural things such as music ?

yes, and your correction re: criollo/cumbia is appreciated. So criollo is also a style and I have seen a band with the box drum, they had a classy female singer who was almost a standup comedian, a common attribute of front people here. Hard to remember style names in a second language.

I dug up that other 70´s psych band on the iPod this morning, they were called El Polen (The Pollen). Really pretty, on the lighter end, acoustic guitar, flute, 1st two tracks sounded like mellow Ghost. Then they went into a criollo type track and then a folklorica track, then I had to go eat. They had two albums, don´t know if there are reissues. I got them from some sharity blog but hell if I can remember which.

Any timba suggestions that I could check out?

I don't actually like most of it, but I do happen to like two albums this year that can be considered timba. (Like lots of other genres, the boundaries of "salsa" and "timba" are endlessly debated, and most people use them in both a narrow and broad sense, which is why I'm hedging a bit about what this stuff really is.) Those albums are: Los Soneros All Stars, Featuring Cesar "Pupy" Pedroso: La Timba Soy Yo: http://www.soneros-all-stars.com/ and Pupy y Los Que Son Son: Tranquilo Que Yo Controlo: http://www.uksalsa4all.com/la_clave_cubana/latest_news_september08.html

There seems to be a distressing increase in the number of Cuzco bar bands playing "rock, reggae, funk", which is shorthand for "shitty cover bands". I´m gonna go out with my stepfather on Saturday night looking for some good music, will report back.

I´ve seen a lot of huaynos videos in the last week, in a market and as part of a school presentation. Rockist and Curmudgeon, y'all should try to hear those Arhoolie comps if you've never checked the genre out. They use this insane 16-string instrument (D-G-B-E like a tenor guitar, four groups of four strings each, the two bass ones have 1 string each that´s an octave lower). Can´t remember the name although I´ve heard it twice, you see it in all the videos.

When we start working in Quiquihana I hope to do some radio shows for the pirate station that the nuns have in their convent, I also hope to tape them, convert them to digital upon my return, and upload to this thread.

Thanks for the tip.

Just received a pr e-mail from a label plugging a Lima group, NovaLima--

Novalima's pioneering blend of soulful Afro-Peruvian rhythms and melodies with the cutting-edge grooves of dub reggae, chilled-out electronica and funky Latin beats creates an irresistible mash-up of old-school traditions and modern trends. Fans of the Gotan Project, Ojos de Brujo and Thievery Corporation will love Novalima's stunning new album, Coba Coba.

I'm not so crazy about Ojos or Thievery's whirrled-dance beats so this blurb doesn't excite me, but maybe Novalima are better live.

DJ /rupture was @ Telefónica in Lima, Perú recently

guitarist Oscar Aviles w/ singer Zambo Cavero and some nice percussion

Dj Rupture/Jace Clayton also mentioned on his Mudd Up blog vocalist Cecilia Barraza (who is on the Rough Guide to Afro-Peru and should not be confused with the Chicago based woman boxer of the same name. Really.) He mentioned her album Canterurias

Check out the percussion and dancing at about 1:48 in

In Mudd Up blog comments in response to something about Los Mirlos (Peruvian chicha-rock) someone posted this wild Juaneco y su Combo video (Luke from 2 Live Crew would like the dancers)http://www.negrophonic.com/2007/los-mirlos/#comments

website (in Spanish) about Peruvian rock bands:

http://www.chicama.com/

page from that site about El Polen:

http://www.chicama.com/polen.htm

contemporary group Amaru Puma Kuntur live in Cuzco

I heard some good Afro-Peruvian music on the radio last night and I think the group's name was Peru Negro, and I also heard some decent "electronica" (that's how the DJ described it anyway) from Peru, but I am posting to draw attention to this:

http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/23433.10?6BBeimqC;;393

I didn't know Melcochita went this far back.

For stuff that has more of a Afro- Peruvian feel, the early records by
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabuca_Granda are incredible.

― oscar

just cosigning this. Don't know much Peruvian music but her stuff is great, "La flor de la canela" is a true classic.

Going to see Susana Baca tonight in Oakland. Anyone seen her before ? Thoughts ?

New Afro-Peruvian project, Peña, looks promising.

Nice.

Buika's drummer sat on and played a Peruvian cajon box drum last Friday at the Howard Theatre.

When I was in Peru all I heard was reggaeton, the Black Eyes Peas and David Guetta.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/06/13/singer-susana-baca-talks-about-her-musical-style/

Talking about her collaborations w/ Calle 13 and her plans for next cd. She's on a short US tour now. In DC tonight

Man, I'm so addicted to the really space-y chicha stuff. This LP by Los Jharis De Ñaña called "Los Creadors Del Sonido De La Carretera Central" is just so awesome. (It was put out by an American label called Masstropicas)

Here they are doing a tune that's a bit of a standard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL0R3s3_gd0

I can't get enough of this stuff. Light in the Attic is doing a compilation of tracks from various bands led by the guitarist of Los Jharis, Teo Laura, who just shreds with this beautiful psyched out riffs.

that stuff looks great!

Destroy: The "Peruvian Funk" compilation on Secret Stash - uninspiring.

El Polen is still my favorite band from Peru, really wish someone would reissue those.

smithsonian folkways "traditional music of peru 6: the ayacucho region" SFWCD40449 is the bees knees - largely because half the tunes sound burmese, but somehow not burmese.

SEARCH:
The Roots of Chicha - Psychedelic cumbias from Peru (awesome compilation, there's a part II that's also recommendable).
Los Shapis (more chicha, they're probably the best band for this sort of music, the session video below is on of my favorites).
Los Saicos - Demolicion (proto-punk from 1964).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op0dN_U4L5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_orjzzFzas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fML-0M3e6Tk

Yes! All that old chicha stuff is so great - so much emphasis on melody and hooks. I love Los Destellos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMZTGlRuWXw

El Polen is still my favorite band from Peru, really wish someone would reissue those.

― sleeve, Thursday, June 13, 2013 3:18 PM

45th anniversary concerts taking place now - not exactly the reissues I was hoping for, but apparently you can buy new CDs directly from the surviving brother/member now.

http://conciertosperu.com.pe/nacional/2014/el-polen-celebra-sus-45-anos-con-una-serie-de-conciertos/

internet says they are one of the first Andean Acid Rock groups ever

Hmmm, will have to listen

me too!

as far as peruvian music i really love those arhoolie huayno collections, those are amazing

yep, I have both of those and they are incredible

More stuff to add to my list!

hey look somebody did reissue the 2nd El Polen album, I almost missed it. 400 copies, from 2 years ago, still a couple left on Discogs.

http://www.discogs.com/El-Polen-Fuera-De-La-Ciudad/release/4100172

I ordered mine yesterday.

...and while I blinked, a reissue of the first El Polen album (Cholo) also came out, I got what appears to be the last copy of 400. same label. so good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWLp2mJ_nTA

still not listed on Discogs for some insane reason

not sure if you're looking for all types of music from peru, but raul garcia zarate does classical mixed with andean folk guitar. his tunings are pretty wild and he's ridiculously humble and talented

yeah anything goes here, will check that out

do you live in peru?

no, I spent some tine there (7 months total) over the last decade or so

oh okay. just wondering if you want more "regional" sounding stuff or the more amercanised/european rockist sound. i'll throw out some recs of the latter.

resplandor is pretty good shoegazey stuff

dolores delirio is post-punk with pretty dark/gothic vibes

g3 was probably peru's most popular punk band. they were pretty good. when they changed to inyectores they went downhill.

never liked them, but los mojarras had this "chicha rock" thing going. i think they were from the 80s?

again, never was a fan, but we all together were the thing to talk about back in the 70s if you were a music fan, especially of the beatles. they have similar styles. they did incorporate some regional sounds, if memory serves. i've not listened to them in over 15 years.

i want to say mar de copas was probably one of the earliest biggest rock bands that peru "exported"? arena hash never fully caught on in other parts of latin america, i don't think. this was before libido and other big names from the late 90s and 2000s.

that's all that comes to mind for now

These comps are good:

http://www.amazon.com/Huayno-Music-Of-Peru-Vol/dp/B004IJZT1Y

http://www.amazon.com/Huayno-Music-Peru-Vol-1960-1970/dp/B0000001H4

yeah those are the amazing Arhoolie huaynos comps discussed a bit upthread, recommended

Singer Susana Baca is intensive care in a hospital in Peru. Apparently she’s also being mocked on twitter x by conservatives who don’t like her politics

:(

I have Tarkus arriving some time soon. So there's great for you.
Been meaning to get it for a while.
May get Pax at some point. Though the lyrics seem a tad not great.