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Novalima

From Peru

Sun-drenched sounds that look both forward and back

They're making up for lost time. Previously, the only Peruvian music we'd heard was largely confined to the smoky siren songs of Susana Baca and the odd David Byrne compilation. Then Radiokijada, the Gotan Project spin-off project, graced the Charlton Park stage last year and, for 2010, we extend the warmest welcome to their compatriots Novalima. This is a band who, back home in Lima where their debut album went platinum, have ridiculed the notion that you can't be both cutting-edge and commercial. Theirs is a sultry fusion of generations-old Afro-Peruvian traditions and more techno-savvy sounds, one that coolly touches base with salsa, son, hip-hop, dub, Afrobeat and electronica. But these aren't musical magpies plundering the nests of others. Appealing to the feet as well as the head, they construct something unified and purposeful, in the process commendably bridging Peru's entrenched racial divides. The medium becomes the message.

(Biography by Nige Tassell 2010)
(Image by Tim O'Malley)

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