Chicha Libre W/Opener One Ring Zero

Presented by the stranger genre: latin, surf music, psychedelic pop related artists: os mutantes "totally original and distinctive."- pitchfork chicha libre plays a mixture of latin rhythms, surf music and psychedelic pop inspired by peruvian music from the amazon. The brooklyn-based band mixes up covers of forgotten chicha classics with french-tinged originals, re-interpretation of 70’s pop classics as well as cumbia versions of pieces by satie and ravel. Cumbias amazonicas, as they were first called, were loosely inspired by colombian accordion-driven cumbias but incorporated the distinctive pentatonic scales of andean melodies, some cuban son, and the psychedelic sounds of surf guitars, farfisa organs and moog synthesizers.bands such as los mirlos, juaneco y su combo and eusebio y su banjo were playing an oddly post-modern combination of western psychedelia, cuban and colombian rhythms, national melodies and idiosyncratic inventions which were close in spirit to both the congolese rumba of franco and the pop syncretism of os mutantes. The group includes musicians associated with the brooklyn barbès scene (which is co owned by two of the musicians in the band: olivier conan and vincent douglas) and includes keyboardist joshua camp, who is one half of lit-rock group one ring zero and plays an antiquated accordion/organ hybrid called the electravox; olivier conan (who also play with las rubias del norte) on cuatro and vocals; bassist nicholas cudahy, guitarist vincent douglas (of bands bébé eiffel & the humphries) and veteran percussionists greg burrows (andy statman) and timothy quigley (romashka). While chicha libre’s repertoire has evolved somewhat from the amazonian canon, the sound and approach are completely indebted to the amazonian bands it originally emulated. Libre's case – but the latin rhythms that form the basis of the music are both as close and as foreign to them as they were to the shipibo indians who first took up the electric guitar. For more information, visit www.barbesrecords.com/chicha.html