After a few weeks break we are back on the road, resuming our quest for El Dorado. We have made our way from the wide expanses of Canada to the narrowest country in the world (relative to its length). Welcome to long, skinny Chile.
When covering the music of Chile you really have to start with Vic and Vi - Victor Jara and Violeta Parra. Victor is probably the better known internationally, not least for the manner of his death, but Violeta was the real pioneer. She was pretty much single-handedly responsible for starting the Nueva Canción Chilena movement, a revival of traditional music that became linked to progressive political groups and inspired similar movements elsewhere in Latin America.
Violeta's best known song is "Gracias A La Vida", one of most covered Latin American songs ever and one that has a place in the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame. This is the original from 1966. Sadly Violeta's own life was not as happy as the song suggests and she killed herself the following year.
Victor was one of Violeta's many proteges and an early recruit to the Nueva Canción Chilena movement. After starting his recording career covering traditional songs his music became increasing political, notably with the release in 1969 of "Preguntas Por Puerto Montt", about police violence in the town of that name. He was one of the many thousands associated with the Allende government to be killed by Pinochet's thugs in Estadio Chile this month in 1973.
That is a heavy opening to a feature that I normally try to keep light and fluffy but it was hard to avoid. Now let's reset the tone. Fluffiness ahoy!
In parallel with the Nueva Canción movement Chile also had a vibrant psychedelic scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Among the pioneers were the MacIver brothers from Valparaiso, whose band Los Mac's led the way with the release of the album "Kaleidoscope Men" in 1967. I've chosen the jaunty opening number.
Much less jaunty were Aguaturbia, whose self-titled debut album in 1970 presaged the arrival of heavy rock in Chile and caused a bit of a stir due to the naughty nude people on the cover. Personally I prefer their second album - the innovatively titled "Volumen 2" - from which today's selection comes. Please take time to admire the feisty vocals of Denise Corales and the guitar work of her husband Carlos.
We are going to leap forward a quarter of a century now to catch up with another female-fronted band, Elso Tumbay. They described their music as "medieval rock, a conversation between two goblins about a failed revolution". Those of us who prefer simpler labels might go for pop-prog or something like that. Look out for some fine fiddling on this track from their self-titled debut album released in 1997.
Next up we have Pascuala Ilabaca (or "the accordion-wielding Chilean songstress Pascuala Ilabaca" as Womex would have it). With her group Fauna she has been making jazz-tinged folk music since 2008 and since then has picked up a few awards and appeared at the likes of WOMAD. This is the title track from her 2010 album "Diablo Rojo Diablo Verde".
Chile has nearly 4000 miles of coastline and roughly 900 beaches, so it is perhaps no surprise that there is a surf rock scene. One of the current wave (pun intended) is The Chukukos. Originally from landlocked Santiago they are now based in even more landlocked Switzerland so quite where they picked up the bug I don't know. Anyway, this track is from their 2017 album "Deep Latin Surf Attack".
For the Mandatory American Reggae slot we have Sistemo Beat Andino from the heart of the Aconcagua valley in the foothills of the Andes. This dubby take on the local folk music comes from their 2022 album "Territorio Andino" and features a guest spot from the sensibly named Silly Tang. I assume he is the man who says "Irie" a grand total of two times, which hardly seems worthy of a credit to me.
"Gracias A La Vida" - Violeta Parra
"Preguntas Por Puerto Montt" - Victor Jara
"F.M. y Cia" - Los Mac's
"Waterfall" - Aguaturbia
"Yo No Vengo a Vender" - Elso Tumbay
"Diablo Rojo Diablo Verde" - Pascuala Ilabaca y Fauna
"La Venganza de Ramon Ramon" - The Chukukos
"El Himno De Los Locos" - Sistema Beat Andino (feat. Silly Tang)
I wanted to kick off the videos with a young lady who rather stole my heart when I first discovered her song "Danny Bastard" a few years ago. But the video has been "disabled for playback on other platforms" so you'll need to head over to YouTube to watch it. Trust me, it is worth the effort.
What appears at first to be frothy pop fun is actually deeply political. Just change 'Danny' to 'Donny' and you have a searing critique of the current US administration: "You think you are a master but you're only just a bastard". Does that make Betania López the new Violeta Parra? Probably not.
Now onto the videos proper. Take it away folks.
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