Chancha Via Circuito
Rio Arriba
(ZZK Records)
Beat-heavy South American cumbia at its best, Chancha via Circuito, meaning “Pig on the Circular Train,” has created a hypnotic jaunt. Cumbia originated from the Caribbean coast of Columbia. It began as dance music formulated by African slaves. Their sound later infused itself with instrumentation and musical composition that is European in nature. Pedro Canale, an Argentine DJ, is Chancha Via Circuito and the driving force behind exquisitely warm percussive rhythms that oscillate with clicking cymbals, pan-flutes, spiraling choruses, and thick slithering bass lines.
At times more dancehall, Rio Arriba, Chancha Via Circuito’s new album, is an audio delight chockfull of digitally molten jungalized odes. The title track sways with heady sensual seduction percussively, heightened by the push of flutes, and an ambient appeal like being in the middle of a steamy yet elegant lush rainforest. The more robotic “Prima†is a devastation of palpable rattling beats and aluminum cackling drums. The magnificence is that even still the taunt winding reverb of beats is enthralling hypnotica. Largely instrumental and widely engaging, each song creates an idea, a movement built upon the sprawling tapestry of sound Canale has hand-crafted.
