Green Power Forever: ‘The Roots of Chicha’ is Back on Vinyl

Few records get a party started better than The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru, a 2007 collection that gathers tracks from the utterly beguiling 1960s and 1970s music scene in and around Lima, Peru. Issued by NYC label Barbés Records, a label that describes its mission as being “devoted to the documentation of impure music – idiosyncratic hybrids borne out of tradition but twisted into new shapes by adventurous musicians from Peru, Poland, Chile, France or the US,” Barbés is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and repressing the highly covetable Roots of Chicha 2LP set, which gathers select tracks from volumes 1 and 2 of the series. We snagged a few copies for the shop.

What is chicha, and how is it connected to cumbia? Liner notes written by Olivier Conan, who compiled the volume, offer context, explaining that chicha bands in the 1960s “borrowed the style from the Colombian but updated it to reflect both the national sensibility and the times. They incorporated elements from English and American music — especially surf music — and replaced the accordion with the electric guitar.”

Conan, of the band Chicha Libre, continues:

A similar phenomenon occurred the world over. As radio and television started playing western programs, local groups from all countries began to emulate British Invasion and American psychedelic bands. Most copied the format, using drum sets, electric bass, and guitars. Malaysian Pop Yeah Yeah, Cambodian rock, Uruguayan Invasion bands – these all started out as imitators, even if their brand of pop eventually developed a specific national character.

In Peru, chicha was syncretic from the start. Bands used a standard Latin rhythm section of congas, bongos, and timbales, but mixed it up with a rock format of bass, electric guitars, Moog synthesizers, and Farfisa organs. The sound was modern — the guitars and organs had that modern sound imported straight from North America — and it was also distinctly Latin, not Peruvian. It was pan-Latin: like the new instruments — the Farfisa, the electric guitar — the rhythms were borrowed, yet the music was undeniably national. Just like the drink itself, chicha stood for a specifically indigenous brand of Peruvian pride.

In a 2010 interview with Conan for Sound and Colours, the way Conan described the process of compiling Roots of Chicha 2, the equally astounding follow-up, offers a look at the bounty. “The main problems were boiling it down to a few bands and a few songs. The body of work is absolutely astounding. You’re talking about fifteen years of amazing output by dozens and dozens of bands. In the case of Los Destellos, I had to pick four out of about 200 songs that I listened to a lot. Same with Chacalon or Manzanita – especially Manzanita, who deserves his own box set. The other problem was obtaining the rights. The history of song ownership in Peru can be pretty byzantine. I wasn’t able to secure the rights for a few bands – which is really too bad.”

Conan explains in notes that the early cumbia bands came from Amazonian cities including Pucallpa, Moyobamba, and Iquitos, part of a region experiencing a population influx due to the oil boom. “Bands such as Juaneco y Su Combo, Los Mirlos, and Los Tigres de Tarapoto sung [sic] about partying, oil (Los Mirlos have a song called “La Danza del Petrolero”), and life in the forest. The goal was to entertain, and the lyrics could be tongue in cheek or even outright funny. Still, a particular sense of regional and ethnic pride runs through all these lyrics; bands refer to it as Poder Verde, or Green Power.”

“The rhythms didn’t vary much: they were either mid-tempo cumbias or fast cumbias called cumbión,” the notes continue. “The music, however, retained a strong regional flavor in part by relying heavily on the pentatonic scales associated with Andean folklore. It was at once familiar and exotic, traditional and modern.”

Spurred by the surprise global success of the first volume, in 2010 Conan compiled Roots of Chicha 2, a similarly stellar collection released by Barbés. The attention prompted the Conan to write a second volume of liner notes, and he used the platform to greatly expand the research, while also offering a note on process:

When I released the first volume of “Roots of Chicha” in September of 2007, I couldn’t have foreseen the kind of impact it would have. Had I known, I would have been a little more careful in my research, talked to a few more people, and asked a lot more questions. I got lucky.

The songs I picked, mostly by instinct, turn out be some of the most emblematic of the 60s and 70s.
Releasing a second volume proved a lot more difficult. I have since gone back to Peru, listened to hundreds more songs, talked to a lot of people, met some of the players, and gained a much broader understanding of the music and its history. All of which made the task of compiling a second volume much harder.

Curious about the new repress? More info at our shop, where you can purchase Roots of Chicha.