Chicha Libre have been at the forefront of a global movement to revalorize Chicha - psychedelic cumbia from Peru. Chicha was first popularized outside of Peru by a compilation released by Chicha Libre's own Olivier Conan via Barbes Records, entitled "The Roots of Chicha". The band started out as a tribute to Peruvian pioneers but quickly evolved into one of the world's preeminent Tropical Psychedelic bands. While the band remains true to it's Chicha roots, the music has taken a more psychedelic turn, drawing from it's members' alternative background. Like it's mentors, Chicha Libre uses surf guitar, organ sounds and Latin percussion to play a mixture of borrowed and homegrown sounds, but it's music is a freeform reinvention, not an exercise in nostalgia. Synth sounds, treated guitars, French songs, classical music and pop debris from three continents contribute to Chicha Libre's freeform approach to the tropical genre. The cumbia beats that form the basis of the music are both as inherent and as foreign to them as they are to many generations of South American musicians who embraced a style they rarely grew up with.
