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El Cuy – Self-Titled
(World in Sound)
By Kevin McHugh
February 1, 2008
Unbeknownst to most of us culture-bound fools in North America, Europe, and Australia there’s a hotbed of musical goodness bubbling far in the underground in Lima, Peru. Well, we should have known. First Argentina (Los Natas, Dragonauta, etc.) and now it’s Peru’s turn, and we should all be grateful.
Why? Because intense groups like El Cuy are here to bust ass, ready or not. In case you were wondering, a Cuy is something like a guinea pig, and is apparently served as a delicacy in the Andes. It can also be found in certain fertility rituals. Ahem. I guess I must be missing something, but whatever. The relevant fact here is that El Cuy serves up some hard trippin,’ high octane rock, end of story. Marcos Coifman, who apparently needs to burn up some excess energy, despite his gig in progressive doomsters Reino Ermitano, plays his Rick bass like a (more) deranged Lemmy, and guitarist Bill Astete and drummer Pepe Abad don’t miss a lick in keeping up with him. Doom it ain’t!
What it IS, is intense psychedelic garage rock, spiritually at home in the late 60s and early 70s, but brought up to date in execution. The press release says “Black Sabbath meets Cream,” which gives you a hint, but frankly I think it does them a disservice. In my opinion, their true antecedent is the MC5 at their ferocious best, twirling in circles like maniacs, on fire with the joy of playing. You may want to file El Cuy next to other brothers in arms, such as Nixon Now!, the Kinks ca. 1966, Amplified Heat, Buffalo (South America), and the ubiquitous Sabbath/Zeppelin.
The whole presentation is nice, down to the artwork, which looks like some long-lost South American psych classic from 1971, the kind that goes for 1K a pop these days. The fact that the album is sung in Spanish should bother you not at all. So you’ve got no excuse: pony up, and find out what’s going on with our musical brothers down south. You’ll feel like you’ve got an army of amphetamine sucking tarantulas crawling up your spine.
www.myspace.com/cuyrock
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