Chicha (Libre) rides again, Carolina Amoruso

Chicha (Libre) rides again By Carolina Amoruso If the vintage chicha of Juaneco, los Destellos, et al., makes me smile, and Sonido Amazonica, by johnny-come-latelys Chicha Libre, gets me chuckling, then Canibalismo (Barbès Records), Libre’s latest offering, brings me to carcajadas. Chicha Libre is on a mission to spearhead a revival of Peru’s first homegrown pop genre and to take and keep it on the road. Libre is, in fact, a gaggle of guys with elected affinities--i.e., an embrace of chicha (the music) and old hat/new-fangled electronica—though not one of them is Peruvian. The lineup comprises a venezolano, a mexicano, two franceses and 2 norte americanos. They came together at Barbès, a Brooklyn world music club, and pledged to make happy, wacky, rootsy music in a high-tech, low-tech way. The brew that Peruvian folk came to love as chicha in the late ‘60s and onward imported much of its sound: from Colombia’s cumbia; from Afro-Cuba’s primal and percussive rhythms; from Dick Dale’s, the Ventures’, Santo and Johnny’s and others’ surfing guitar sounds, and from the outposts of UK and US rock ‘n roll. Chicha Libre’s jump- off point was cumbia amazonica, cumbia psicodelica --or however chicha in its trippy boom years of the late ‘70s and ‘80s was tagged- - and Sonido Amazonico (2008) was a fine facsimile of the real thing, if a little timid. Now, with Canibalismo, Libre is riffing on their own riff. The sound is more maturely sculpted and the further departures from script they’ve run with, especially in genre, have not jeopardized their currency in a chicha revival, but promise to win them creds in a broader world music setting, too. With cumbia still bedrocking most of the tunes, Canibalismo fuses the farflung elements of tripped out electronics, sinuous Middle Eastern minor key measures, hip-propelling backup Congolese guitars, even stolen moments from 70’s West African “rumba” bands, into a picnic of sound. Muchachita del oriente greets us with a fanfare on the drum kit; this opens into a perky clave the provenance of which can only be el oriente de Cuba; we take a break with a brief electronic whoosh, and the curtain pulls back for the takeover by the twanging, rubbery surfer guitar. “Muchachita del oriente…siempre sonriente, tu vienes a bailar.” But, why not? In fact, Canabalismo in its entirety is eminently bailable. Depresión Tropical has lots going on, all of it fun. The mysterious melodies of the Kasbah intrude under more wave-riding guitars, adding some power chords for extreme punctuation. Especially fetching are the clever changes in dynamic, allowing the bands’ primary sensibilities to compete: electronic (helped by the retro sound of the Farfisa organ), woozy guitar, the Kasbah, and Latinate percussion. La Danza de Don Lucho is a hip revisiting of the cumbia peruana, but it doesn’t linger here; Libre’s itchy feet migrate to the lands of salsa, paying more homage to French West Africa’s love affair with Fania than to the boricua All-Stars themselves. This is great stuff and eminently tongue-in-cheek. For serious music fans, we have the Ride of the Valkyries. Well, almost. Poor Richard Wagner, he must be turning his Teutonic self over in the grave as this once proud operatic trademark descends into cumbia, electronic parodies and unabashed kitch. The whistle, wah wah, and up-scale/down-scale runs by the organs, the crescendoing drums, and clipity clop of the cumbia clave make an amusement park ride of an erstwhile hypercharged call to battle. Roll over, P.D.Q. Bach, Chicha Libre has come to town. Canibalismo will be released on 08, May in the US. Latin American dates vary. Chances are, Chicha Libre will be coming to a theater near you