El Amor No es Para Débiles

Peru’s Bareto have responded to the departure of their lead singer Mauricio Mesones by recruiting a number of guest vocalists alongside his replacement Javier Arias. The result is one of their most varied albums to date, freeing up a sound dominated, but not defined, by cumbia to venture into new sonic territory.

‘Cumbia Circular’ is cumbia for sure, but with its dub-ska bassline, ephemeral organ and María Cardona’s eerie vocals it’s very much in the vein of The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’; ‘Los Marcianos’, featuring comedian Melcochita, is a sci-fi pastiche not too dissimilar to Colombia’s Meridian Brothers; then there’s the instrumental ‘Vallecito’, a beautiful melody but with lots of reverb and melodica giving a Caribbean Spaghetti western vibe. Even when playing boleros and recruiting the likes of 60-plus year música criolla singer Bartola and national tecnocumbia icon Rossy War they do so without getting overly saccharine, the music throwing curveballs while the passion of the performers is never in doubt. They even start the album with a paean to their favourite medicinal plant with the track ‘Cura Cura’ – ‘ayahuasca, medicina, cura cura.’