The Birth of Jungle Cumbia

Since The Roots of Chicha gave Peru’s guitar-driven, bar-band chicha music worldwide exposure six years ago there has been a steady stream of releases shining further light on this once-neglected part of Latin music history. The Birth of Jungle Cumbia, which collects together Juaneco y Su Combo’s first two LPs from the 70s, is one of the best so far. With guitar turned up to max, buzzing organs and gunfire-like percussion this is the raw sound of Amazonian chicha, with any similarities to Western psychedelia coming in a strictly spiritual sense.

The myths and traditions of the jungle, as well as a few band in-jokes, are the themes of most of these instrumental songs. What makes them so great is the quality of the musicianship, with lead guitarist Noe Fachin Mori showing that whether his instrument is soaked in reverb or razor-sharp with distortion he was very much the Peruvian answer to Link Wray. After these albums the group signed to the Infopesa label and cleaned up their sound before tragedy struck in 1977, when Mori and four other band members died in a plane crash, making the release of these long-forgotten recordings even more valuable and welcome.