"Sonido Amazonico!"
CD
2. Primavera En La Selva
3. Mi Plato De Barro
4. Tres Pasajeros
5. The Hungry Song
6. El Borrachito
7. Pavane


2. Primavera En La Selva
3. Mi Plato De Barro
4. Tres Pasajeros
5. The Hungry Song
6. El Borrachito
7. Pavane
8. Six Pieds Sous Terre
9. Un Shipibo En España
10. Indian Summer
11. La Cumbia Del Zapatero
12. Popcorn Andino
13. Yo No Fui
14. Gnossienne No. 1


This Brooklyn-based band are here to intoxicate you with their potent mixture of latin rhythms, surf music and psychedelic pop. Chicha Libre draw their inspiration from... Chicha, a form of Peruvian music that emerged from the Amazon in the early '70s, loosely derived from Colombian accordion-driven cumbias but incorporating distinctive Andean melodies, some Cuban son and heady swirls of surf guitar, farfisa organ and moog synth. All in all, a sound which wouldn't seem out of place in the soundtrack of a Tarantino movie.
 
By combining covers of forgotten Chicha classics with French-tinged originals, re-interpretations of '70s pop classics (such as 'Popcorn' and Joe Dassin/Toto Cutugno's 1975 hit 'Indian Summer'), and subtly executed cumbia takes on pieces by Satie and Ravel, Chicha Libre meld elegant homage with playful humour and a sublime twist of the new - pushing their music way beyond mere pastiche and into strange, sun-blanched epiphany.
 



Band leader Olivier Conan (who runs hip Brooklyn club Barbès) developed an unnatural passion for vintage Chicha during a trip to Peru. He ended up releasing the acclaimed “Roots Of Chicha” compilation, and decided to go a step further by forming this inventive band which, aside from Conan himself on lead vocals and cuatro (a small, four-stringed latin American guitar), comprises keyboardist Joshua Camp (who plays an antiquated accordion/organ hybrid called the Electravox, and is also one half of lit pop band One Ring Zero); bassist Nicholas Cudahy (ex-Combustible Edison); guitarist Vincent Douglas (Bébé Eiffel & The Humphries) and veteran percussionists Greg Burrows and Tim Quigley.
 
By the way, Chicha is a corn liquor favored by the Incas and still very popular throughout Peru.


Releases

CHICHA LIBRE - Canibalismo
CHICHA LIBRE
Canibalismo
craw82
CHICHA LIBRE - Sonido Amazonico!
CHICHA LIBRE
Sonido Amazonico!
craw53