The second installment in Vampisoul's Cumbia Beat series offers up an intriguing mix of instrumental and vocal latin tracks. The compilation traces the history of Peruvian cumbia by focusing on key bands and influential players. The style is typified by playful, bouncy guitars, simple but charming riffs, and tropicalizations of ballads and certain rock classics. We'll let Vampisoul take it from here: Peruvian cumbia, also known as "chicha", brings together tropical music styles from Colombia and Cuba, Western influences such as 60s beat and psychedelic rock, and mixes them with indigenous melodies from the Amazonian jungle and traditional Andean songs. The result is a unique and vibrant style of music which reverberates with life. Peruvian cumbia is currently being rediscovered by new audiences and there exists a thriving international club and live venue scene. The "resurrection" of Peruvian tropical music, of psychedelic cumbia or, as others like to call it, chicha, is perhaps one of the most surprising musical phenomena in recent years. The number of reissues, new releases and bands that have begun to play chichi or covers of tropical Peruvian classics in Argentina, England, Russia and the United States has multiplied. This cocktail of electric guitars, Caribbean percussion, Andean pentatonics and psychedelic soloing, synths, moogs, güiros, wah wahs, timbales and fuzztones was simply too striking to go unnoticed. Elements of rock, folklore, música criolla, Andean music, Amazonian music, Colombian cumbia, salsa and even psychedelia intermingle in this "cannibal" genre capable of devouring and assimilating every possible influence.

• Music Label: Vampisoul 2012

reviewed by Joey Coco 09/2012