Album: Various Artists, Cumbia Beat Vol 1 (Vampi Soul)

Back in the late Sixties, when Western pop culture was turning paisley, something similar was happening in Peru, paralleling the Tropicalismo movement revolutionising Brazilian music.

The prohibition by the Peruvian military government of degenerate rock music enabled cumbia, the infectious, cantering rhythm which originated in Colombia, to become the country's dominant urban pop music. Originally, landmark tracks such as Les Demonios De Corocochay's "La Chichera" featured accordion and sax, but then guitarists like Enrique Delgado and Berardo "Manzanita" Hernandez discovered the new effects pedal and the cumbia scene exploded in a mad, psychedelic torrent of trembling vibrato, electric organ, peppery polyphony of bongos, congas and timbales – a thrilling sound.

DOWNLOAD THIS Arre Caballito; El Avispón; La Chichera; Guajira Sicodélica