Los Destellos

Compilations of Peruvian cumbia are all well and good, but for some, only an original album will do. With this in mind, Secret Stash issues their first single artist "chicha" album by one of the genre's finest bands, Los Destellos. Of course, something this good can't spring forth completely unheralded; if you're a fan of the late'60s/mid-'70s psychedelic guitar meets Cubano-Colombian jams, you'll be familiar with "A Patricia," "Pasión Oriental" and the title track. Each of these has that trademark skank-driven groove with tripped-out Bakersfield- or Byrds-like riffs duking it out overtop. It's the rest of the tracks that expand the picture to show the band trying out different styles. Most incredible is epic tape echo Santana jam "Onsta La Verbita." "La Cancion De Lily" makes the country connection stronger with a suspicious similarity to "Ring of Fire," while "Azuquita" goes into a mellow Latin jazz guajira. The cheese factor isn't low, but that's not a bad thing, especially since the righteous guitar work always saves the day.