Ayahuasca: Cumbias Psicodelicas Vol. 1

What have we here? At first glance it seems like the missing volume from our Groove Club series, which it so easily could have been! In short, it's a stunning collection—which took more than fifteen years to put together—of tracks that combine cumbia with psychedelic rock. Starting in the late 1960s, there was a boom of tropical music in Peru, both in Lima and the provinces. The music called ‘cumbia peruana’ merged this tropical sound with that of psychedelic rock. Peculiar aspects of traditional Colombian cumbia were mixed with electric (often fuzz) guitar, played over native Andean and jungle rhythms; this combination provoked an explosion of original musical styles: an instrument to lead the way, usually from the introduction of the song; over this, hypnotic layers of keyboards or guitar with wah wah, and simple bass-lines; to top it off, syncopated rhythms from percussion instruments such as bongos, congas, huiros, cymbals, timbales, among others, often played at breakneck speed, to drive the song forward. Simple, funky, effective. In the end, it's like a sonic cousin to Nigerian music: these musicians liked guitar, they had a fondness for echo, and they loved a murky high-octane jam. Firece, funky and full of flavor. Includes an insert.