Chicha Libre

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More About

• Brooklyn (New York City)
• Erik Satie
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• World Music

Cumbia is one of Latin America's most distinct yet diverse genres of music, and the Peruvian offshoot known as "chicha" is one of the most striking: traditional Colombian music combined with melodies from the Andes, Cuba and the United States to create a Latin strain of psych-pop drenched in surf guitars and garage rock farfisas. Brooklyn's Chicha Libre are the most prominent American proponents of the music, and their 2008 debut Sonido Amazonico! is a lively, playful take on it. Their original compositions -- some instrumental, some sung in French (!) -- are faithful to the spirit of the genre, while their covers stretch across some outlandish turf: scattered amongst their reinterpretations of old chicha classics are takes on everything from a beautiful rendering of Erik Satie's "Gnosienne No. 1" to a gleefully arch revision of Hot Butter's moog-cheese hit "Popcorn".
Sat., Sept. 12, 7 p.m., 2009