Various

Fast rising London label Cornerman International present the first volume in a new LP compilation series, the first of which looks in on some of the best Latin cumbia to grace Peru during the genre's golden era. Corralling every bright group star from Los Tigres to Grupo Atlantic to Los Invasores, this is a sure-to-be obscurio's favourite, reflecting the diversity of styles bottleable within the otherwise rhythmic constraint that defines the cumbia sound, as it particularly proliferated across Peru during the 1960s. A convenient fusion with American psych rock elements would define the Peruvian sound, which soon became known as chicha, though other Latin American epicentres such as Colombia were also hotbeds of the style. Notably, the release revives the distinctive sound of El Volcan, a Cusco-based label that became a beacon for cumbia in the Andes and beyond.