There’s very little cumbia and absolutely no birds in Chancha Via Circuito’s “Cumbión de las aves,” so if you were expecting a Zizek take on the classic “La Cumbia de los Mirlos” (popularly known as “La Cumbia de los Pajaritos”), you’ll be disappointed.
Cumbia is only subtly present in the beat’s cadence, albeit sans the characteristic güiro, with the tambores replaced by industrial noises and buried under layers of hypnotic live arrangements of charangos and quenas. And the birds? That’d be us, because the resulting trippy effect’s purpose is to make us fly (as opposed to dance, which would be cumbia’s traditional raison d’être).
That pretty much summarizes Río Arriba as a whole. Chancha Via Circuito’s latest release (it was available digitally since late 2010, but now it’s coming out on vinyl, too) breaks away from the trite and safe nu-cumbia formula to explore the hallucinogenic drift of Andean folk and beyond.
May be a bit too vegan for those who embraced nu-cumbia as an infinite source of post-modern irreverence and kitsch, and it won’t make you dance unless you’re on ‘shrooms, or something. But still, Chancha remains one of the most interesting and singular producers in the Zizek camp and you shouldn’t miss your chance to cach him live during his upcoming U.S. tour (dates below).
Download Chancha Via Circuito’s “Cumbion de las aves” here for a lesson in flying. (RGHT OR CTRL CLICK TO DOWNLOAD)
TOUR DATES
Fri 4/8 @ Unsound Festival @ NYC, NY
Sat 4/9 @ Tormenta Tropical @ SF, CA
Sun 4/10 @ Atwater Crossing Courtyard, LA, CA
Fri 4/15 @ Peligrosa, Austin, TX
Sat 4/16 @ Bombon, Houston, TX
Sun 4/17 @ Communikey Festival, Boulder, CO
Tue 4/19 @ Team Tuesdays, Santa Fe, NM
Fri 4/22 @ Mundial de Musica (MdM) Festival, Chicago, IL
Thu 4/28 @ Maracuyeah, Washington, DC
Sat 4/30 @ Round Corner Cantina, Pittsburgh, PA
Photo by Marc Van Der Aa.