Chak Chak Chak Chak

What Captain Beefheart was to the blues, Julián Mayorga is to cumbia. His latest album, Chak Chak Chak Chak, is an absolutely bonkers mix of psychedelic experimental cumbia; equal parts the clatter of Swordfishtrombones-era Tom Waits, the South-American surrealism of Tom Zé and the traditional, though disfigured, rhythms of Colombia. Inspired by the magic-realism writings of Latin writers, such as María Luisa Bombal, but also, unexpectedly, the swirling madness of The Vorrh by British writer and poet Brian Catling, Julián Mayorga conjures up delirious images of rat gods, undead dogs, ghost towns and snakes covered in salt. He doesn’t so much sing as yell his anti-capitalist tirades. The album includes a cover of ‘Semolina’ by San Francisco dadaists The Residents, which of course makes perfect sense, Ralph Records (The Residents’ original record label) being a clear reference point. Mayorga’s Chak Chak Chak Chak can get quite exhausting, but in an exhilarating way, as oil drums and junkyard scrap are bashed and the scattershot electronics wildly oscillate in the background. You have been warned!