Guitarist and bandleader Maximiliano Chavez claims his Los Orientales de Paramonga are the authentic band out of the two that existed in Peru simultaneously from 1971 onwards. Who am I to disagree? He wrote their original first 4 sides that appeared on Dinsa 7" singles in 1970 before the group splintered off into his combo and the other directed by guitarist Victor Ramirez.
La Danza del Mono from 1971 was the brilliant first single to be credited to Los Orientales Director M Chavez
If you've only heard a handful of Peruvian psychedelic cumbia tunes chances are this is one of them. Iconic is right! Now here's some more confusing information about this Peruvian scene. I'm not a hundred percent sure about this but I think in the 70s there were two groups called Los Orientales de Paramonga playing a very similar style. I cannot work out if the two groups are related, if one was a splinter group or what the story is. One version of Los Orientales was led by Maximiliano Chavez while the other was perhaps led by Victor Ramirez. Perhaps at one stage Chavez and Ramirez were in the same group then splintered off into two bands, causing this confusion. Maybe they're the same guy (?).
*STOP THE PRESS
I finally found an article that clears up some of the confusion about the information on Discogs and other websites. It turns out I'm right Chavez and Ramirez were both original members of Los Orientales de Paramonga formed in 1968. It is assumed they both appear on the debut single on the Dinsa label from 1970 Lobos Al Escape.
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CAPTURA DE LOBOS
The rest is pretty vague. Sometime in 1971 singles started appearing on the Sono Radio label by Conj Tropical Los Orientales de Paramongo as directed by by Victor Ramirez with the writing credits also going to Victor Ramirez. This is the beginning of the 2nd Los Orientales combo who would run in parallel with the Maximiliano Chavez led version with the same name.
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CAPTURA DE LOBOS
It must have been confusing for Peruvian fans at the time too because the exact same tune (I'm pretty sure it's also the exact same recording) turned up on different labels with different writing credits. This Captura de Lobos single on Dinsa is credited to M Chavez and performed by Los Orientalesdirected by Maximiliano Chavez.
If you could do a basic equation of what Peruvian cumbia (aka psych cumbia) is it would be surf/fuzz/wah-wah guitars playing the melody line that in traditional Colombian cumbia would have been played by the accordion plus awesome danceable latin rhythms. Sure it's much more than that. I mean if I was an ethnomusicologist I'd be able to tell you the different types of latin rhythms utilised, their geographic origin and historical importance. Then there's Andean and Amazonian folk influences particularly in the singing style. Synthesisers increasingly play a role as the the style develops into the late 70s and 80s. There's a social and political element too but I suppose because the lyrics aren't in English that's less tangible.
Anyhow Los Wembler's original version of La Danza Del Petrolero is a totally infectious toe tapper with its very peculiar wall of rhythmic sound containing all sorts of chirps and fizzy noises bubbling away. From what I can gather the brief lyric translates as "This is the dance of the oil tanker. Where the black gold reigns" which makes sense as there was an oil boom in Peru at the time.
LOS MIRLOS 1975
The Los Mirlos cover of La Danza Del Petrolero came out a year later. The guitars are a bit more off kilter here. It's a wobbly psych cumbia journey that Los Mirlos make their own. I probably enjoy the Los Wember's maximalist rhythm more but the guitars in the Los Mirlos version are pretty noice so I guess it's like a draw. Then again if I had to pick one it would be the Los Wembler's de Iquitos original.
It's been 20 years since this tune turned up on the great Vampi Soul compilation Back To Peru. Honestly it feels like longer. Anyway it's summer time so we gotta have the Peruvian cumbia tunes at the ready. Once upon a time I used to spend my summer holidays sipping cocktails in the tropics. It all seems like a dream now. The last 10 years have been a bloody health nightmare. I need to dream in hope that maybe soon I can at least make it out to the backyard and have a cold beer with old friends. This classic 1975 recording from Los Mirlos is on at least 3 compilations in my collection.
LOS WEMBLER'S DE IQUITOS
The original version of Sonido Amazonica from 1974 appeared on the Decibel label. I read recently about a beef between Los Wember's de Iquitos and Los Mirlos that maybe ended up in a seven year court-case or something insane like that. I can't actually confirm if that's true because I now can't find the source. What we do know for sure though is that Los Mirlos became famous and much more successful than Los Wembler's after recording a couple of their tunes including today's theme tune Sondido Amazonico. It all seems pretty shonky.
I do realise I've got this all arse about but the Los Mirlos version is the one we all know and love but hey the Sanchez brothers of Los Wembler's were there right at the beginning of Peru's electric conversion of cumbia in the 60s alongside fellow pioneering legends Los Destellos and Juaneco Y Su Combo.
I was listening to this 2022 Vampi Soul compilation 14 MAGnÃficos Bailables today and the above boogaloo jam turned up at the end. It's an impressive piano and percussion pile up party. Coincidentally Macchu Picchu is in the news today as there is some kind of uprising in Peru but getting a good comprehensive news report on events is "surprise surprise" impossible to find. What are the chances the good old CIA are involved here? All these reporters care about is Westerners being stranded in foreign riot zones. What the fuck happened to news media?
Anyway for what it's worth Vampi Soul in the last year or two have been reissuing a stack of stuff from the ye olde Peruvian record label MAG.
We all know Vladimer Putin is nuts and that NATO have been taunting Russia since the 90s but this goes out to, as Jimmy Dore would say, the WAR PIGS Joe Biden and his Democrat Party, including sell-outs Bernie and AOC. Nearly a hundred billion dollars of American money has been given to Ukraine's war effort. The Ukraine being a country led by a dodgy corrupt regime who have a battalion in their army run by actual neo-nazis. Horrific war crimes have been reportedly committed by certain Ukrainian voluntary forces. Surprise, surprise that weapons sent by the US to Ukraine have shown up in the hands of terrorists in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands. Why are we in the West being asked to cheerlead the military-industrial complex and this retarded proxy war against Russia? Fuck off war pigs.
*Oh and don't mention Yemen.
Anyway how good is this Black Sabbath performance of War Pigs? So tight and on the money! Outstanding magnificence.
In anticipation of the usual Christmas tradition ie. the imminent release of the new Moon Wiring Club LP, I've been listening to some older tunes by Ian Hodgson. He is the one man band behind the MWC moniker. I think I say it every year in December but why aren't Moon Wiring Club in the Pitchforks and Wire Magazines or featured anywhere because really they should be as big as Depeche Mode, I'm sure. Since the release of their classic debut An Audience Of Art Deco Eyes in 2007 they have had a non-stop annual release schedule that has been top notch quality all the way.
2011's Clutch It LIke A Gonk was probably my my most neglected and least listened to MWC concoction almost a designated relic. Recently however I've come to appreciate its perhaps more streamlined and slightly changed approach. They call these albums transition records. A catalyst for the catalyst. Gonk was slightly askew sonically to what had come before and that would remain a constant from then on for this eerie aural project. MWC strayed and expanded into off-beaten territories but they kept enough of their established charms so as to be the changing same. How could this be? Spooky sonic alchemists they are and magic tricks are their game and their sorcery secret is changing while staying the same.
Anyway how good is the above track Spell Casting Summat from the Clutch It Like A Gonk cd. Hallucinatory dark ambient steppy electro garage dub kinda jam.
Anglo Saxon Androids (2022)
So this is the teaser for the new Moon Wiring Club LP Medieval Ice Cream. It sounds like it's going to be a foray into the outer limits of plagued electronic psychedelia with the added appearance of creepy ancient goblins & ghouls from deep space.
Make Yourself At Home (2012)
Here's a golden oldie from the haunted hit parade. Genuinely eldritch and unsettling. Moon Wiring Club hitting upon perfection here. From this point on they would be in a class of their own.
My birthday theme tune. I am Iron Man after an overnight iron transfusion. Thanks to the transfusionists. Haven't heard this in ages and fuck me how good? All of the puzzle pieces! Bill fucking Ward! Geezer the Butler, Tony the goddamn Iommi and Ozzy and the Orange amps and the riff-a-rama and the drums and the Ozzy sings and the colour and the hair and guitar bits that follow bass bits and the tone and the sci-fi narrative and the heavy downward vibe and the guitar bits that follow Ozzy vocal bits and the perfectly in the pocket-ness of the rhythm and the little freak outs and the speed ups and the slow downs and the threads and it's just the best.
Yeah yeah shonky dancing in shonky clothes but wait for the strangest moment when the studio cameras become the dancers to the Moog-y-licious hauntological score. It's all a bit cheesy yet uncanny too.
One afternoon twenty years ago at work I had the Friday soul show on the radio and this song came on and blew me little mind. I always thought this was an 80s tune penned by The Fall and a fine one at that but no I was hearing an even better version from the 60s. This was a Holland/Dozier/Holland composition released on the Motown subsidiary V.I.P. Records in 1967. Weirdly it's performed by Canadian Motown hit Songwriter R Dean Taylor. It was not a hit though. However Ghost In My House was re-released in 1974 in the UK due to Northern Soul DJs giving it a thrashing at their amphetamine fuelled all night discos (Is that what they were? I'm no expert on this particularly English scene). It became a smash hit peaking at No 3 on the charts. Fans of freakbeat, 60s pop and soul rejoice, this is peak tuneage!
Insistence is brilliantly baked into the rhythm, melody and incredible vocal arrangement here.... that outrageous riff-age, underlying terror and those contagious hand claps are something else too... the sonic alchemy of synergy on display on this production is so damn infectious...REWIND!
