Various - Peru Selvatico - 2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Gatefold

New Analog Africa release on 2LP Gatefold Vinyl & Deluxe Package CD. Less than a hundred miles inland from the capital city of Lima lies the great Peruvian jungle, an untamed land of impenetrable forests and endless winding rivers. In its remote towns, cut off from the fashions of the capital, a unique style of music began to develop, inspired equally by the sounds of the surrounding forests, the roll of the mighty Amazon and Ucayali, and the rhythms of cumbia recorded from distant stations on transistor radios. With the arrival of electricity, a new generation of young musicians began to plug in their guitars and trade their accordions for synthesizers: Amazon cumbia was born.

Driven by rapid-fire timbale rhythms, propelled by spidery, triple-damaged guitar lines, and drenched in bright splashes of organ, Amazonian cumbia was like a hyperactive distant cousin of surf music crossed with an all-day dance party in the heart of the forest. While many of the genre's biggest tracks were instrumental and others were simple celebrations of life in the jungle, the goal of each song was to keep the party going.

Radio stations in Lima remained oblivious to the new electric sounds coming from the jungle, but a handful of pioneering record producers ventured over the mountain passes to the cities of Tarapoto, Moyobamba, Pucallpa - even Iquitos, a city accessible only by boat or plane - and lured dozens of bands to the Captain's recording studios to lay down their best tracks. Although many became local hits, few were heard outside the Amazon region ... until now.

Featuring eighteen tracks from some of the biggest names in Amazonian cumbia, Perú Selvatico is both the unlikely soundtrack to a beach party on an Amazon bank and a psychedelic safari into the sylvan riddles of the Peruvian jungle.