Track Listing

1. Chinchivi
2. Bandolero
3. Malato
4. Machete
5. Candela
6. Mandinga
7. Zamba Lando
8. Ay Bembe
9. Toromata
10. Cardo
11. Alcajazz
12. Mayoral
13. Regresa/con La Capilla

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16805 in Music
• Released on: 2005-11-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

CD Description
Afro is the first international release by four Lima born producers known as Novalima.

For the last few years they have been on a mission to bring Afro-Peruvian music up-to-date in the same way as Nicomedes Santa Cruz and others did decades ago when the fragile existence of this music was fading. The result is magnificent. Its raw and acoustic but at the same time electronic. Dark but soulful. Deep and haunting at times. Killer dub bass lines with thumping cajon, quijada and conga percussion.

'Afro', recorded mostly in Lima, Peru, features Afro-Peruvian legends such as Nicomedes Santa Cruz, Lucila Campos, Lucha Reyes, and Zambo Cavero; in addition to renowned Afro-Peruvian musicians such as Juan Medrano Cotito, Mangu' Vaquez, Milagros Guerrero, Oscar Avil's Jr., and Pedro Urrutia. They have managed to capture the real soul of Afro-Peru. You can hear it in 100 year old slavery chants, Cotito's thumping cajon playing, in Mangue's percussion ensembles (Mangue is grandson of Porfirio Vasquez', considered the founder of the Afro-Peruvian movement), in Milagros' emotive voice, and Oscar Aviles Jr's sweet guitar playing. The album includes additional production on all tracks by Nitin Sawhney's and studio wizard Toni Economides.

This is a modern work with today's arrangements and the spirit of yesterday.

Customer Reviews

afroperuvian beats for the 21st century
the first international release by Novalima brings Afro-Peruvian music up to date and the result is fantastic. Its raw and acoustic but at the same time electronic, dark but soulful. This is worlds apart and has no relation to the more commonly known peruvian Andean music (panpipes, et al). This is music brought straight from africa by black slaves hundreds of years ago and its truly haunting with rhythms that will mash down any dancefloor.
novalima are joined on this album by some of the finest Afro-Peruvian musicians on cajon, guitar and vocals. the album includes additional production on all tracks by Londoner studio guru Toni Economides (Nitin Sawhney, Bugz in the Attic, Da Lata) and also has a strong dub influence. If you liked Gotan Project you will absolutely love this. brilliant.

Songlines - Top of the World (01-02/2006)
Lima-born producers Novalima have excelled themselves on Afro, an exhilarating musical voyage to the heart of black Peru that stitches together fragments of Afro-Peruvian traditions collected in the 50s and 60s by people such as Nicomedes Santa Cruz and Chabuca Granda. All the classic musical forms are here, festejo, alcatraz, inga, and lando, even the tango-like waltz-criolle. Overall, it works beautifully, giving a new resonance to songs familiar from albums by Susana Baca or Peru Negro, such as ‘Toro Mata’ and ‘Samba Malato’.
Afro-Peruvian music has been evolving ever since slaves were brought to the country. Unable to build drums for their dances they converted wooden boxes into the now familiar cajón. A donkey jawbone became a scraper and shaker and the quijada de burro was born. The difference with earlier attempts to “rescue” the authentic music is that Novalima employ all the wizardry of the studio to beautifully flesh out what, on tracks such as ‘Chinchivi’ and ‘Samba Malato’, are essentially work chants from the fields. The electronic hand claps, dub echoes and funky breaks will prompt comparisons with Gotan Project but Novalima’s use of top Peruvian musicians and singers keep the sound rooted in the tradition. Their next CD could well be an Afro-Cuban project if Carlos Uribe’s earthy salsa workout on ‘Bandolero’ is anything to go by.
MUST BUY

Deep Soulful Latin Lounge
The previous two reviewers brilliantly covered the Peruvian / modern treatment explanations. For those of you who may remain unconvinced about how indeed this is an absolute MUST BUY, I hope I won't be under-rating this gem of an album by adding that this is what quality, deep, rhythmic, original, nod-along/Tap-along, dance prompter, lounge music should always sound like ... not like the drivel lounge most compilations will serve. Actually it should rate 6 stars. Easy.