Peru has become a world music hotspot, its loping cumbia rhythms cross-pollinating with surf guitar (a longstanding passion in Amazonian Peru) and assorted electronica. Bareto, the country’s leading “tropical” band, touch all bases on this fifth album and first international release, mixing the mega-twang of surf guitar on instrumentals like La Voz del Sinchi with dreamy acoustica on El Loco, the latter featuring singer Susana Baca, the country’s most celebrated musical export. They also have a cool way with reggae, stretching into shimmering dub on Viejita Guarachera. Add squeaky Casio keyboards and the mixing skills of Sidestepper’s Richard Blair, and you have a soundtrack that’s both retro space-age and engagingly futurist.
