Lorenzo Palacios Quispe "Chacalón" is a myth. More than a musical star, he is both a religious and secular phenomenon for the masses. Every year on his birthday, his tomb becomes a place of fevered pilgrimage where devotees pray, make wishes and ask for miracles, all done over songs, cases of beer, dancing and toasting. In Peru, his figure and music erases the distance between the holy and the profane, the hero and the lumpen. Chacalón is, for many Peruvians, the people's angel, the messiah of the poor, the marginalized 'Inkarri'.

"When Chacalón sings, the hills come down", was one of his favorite phrases and with it he referred to the migrant masses that invaded the hills and beaches that surround Lima like a "ring of fire" (José María Arguedas dixit). It was the early 80s and while bombs and a dirty war exploded in the Andes, in Lima, the new and ever-growing population of migrants "climbed down" from their precarious homes and filled venues to dance "chicha" music and to celebrate who they saw as their redeemer.

Despite being a model messianic figure, Lorenzo Palacios had very humble origins. The son of a music dancer from Huancayo and a singer of huayno music (Andean folk) from Ayacucho, Chacalon was born in Lima in 1950. As a teen, he had his debut on stage as the singer of huayno band "The Indios Quechuas". The main requirement to sing that genre of music was to have a powerful ribcage and young Lorenzo seemed to have the needed lung capacity for "guapeos", thunderous voice blows that the genre required.

Chicha music is neither a replica or a copy, despite using Western instruments, such as the electric guitar, bass, drums and organs, and mixing them with cymbals, congas and tropical Guiros. Chicha music has indomestizo elements (like Huayno music) tucked deep in his blood. Listen to the powerful cries of Chacalon and you will hear the heartfelt music of Huancayo; listen to his delicate voice breaks and you will hear the sweet music of Ayacucho. The mix of delicacy and strength and rural and cosmopolitan elements, is part of the secret of seduction that chicha music has had over the masses.

Aside from use of electric instruments, rock music has influenced chicha music in other ways. Chacalón's band was called New Cream as a tribute to the British band Cream. Their use of powerful fuzz tones and wah wah pedals for acid riffs and catchy solos, are the echoes of a rebellious music that wanted to silence the noises of a marginalized and exploitative city atmosphere debased by the most savage capitalism. "I seek a new life in this city / where everything is money and there is evil," reads "Provinciano", Chacalon's most famous songs.

It's because lyrics like these that people saw Chacalón as a messianic figure who sang about the promise of a new life. He sang about pain, alcohol and betrayal, but also about solidarity, love and hope. Chacalon sang to the most marginalized part of society, the lumpenproletariat, and not the middle class or the wealthy. Lorenzo Palacios did not see differences between those who complied with the law or those who transgressed it, because in marginality, survival is the only rule and the boundaries between good and evil become very subtle. "Eat first, then morals," said Chacalon.

RIYL: Los Destellos / Los Mirlos / Roots Of Chicha / Los Shapis / Juaneco y Su Combo

* Remastered from Master Tapes
*Booklet
* Rare Photos

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Side A: Conmuevete - Refugio En El Licor - Vete Y No Vuelvas - Por Culpa De Una Riña - Tu Cambiaste Mi Vida - El Puñal De Tu Traición
Side B: Es Un Pecado - El Solitario - Pequeño Luchador - Mendigo de Amor - Dios Mío Cuida Mi Hogar - Nuestro Amor Ya No Volverá

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The nickname is superb, as unappealable: The University of Chicha. It is not an exaggeration that, 32 years after the release of Pinceladas Musicales, their second LP, the cumbia band Pintura Roja continues to be recognized as a monumental institution in the history of Peruvian music. Since its foundation in 1984, Pintura Roja has served as the quarry of the greatest exponents of "chicha" music, cultivating in the classrooms of its academy artists like Princesita Mily, considered one of the first women to integrate a chicha band, and Muñequita Sally, the disappeared queen of Andean folk, in addition to the legendary vocalist Toño Centella and the remembered Jhonny Orosco, founder of Grupo Néctar.

Pintura Roja is revolution, innovation, success. It is a commitment to originality, as well as a history of defections and tragedies. But above all, Pintura Roja is Alejandro Zárate Espinoza, its founder, director, composer and lead guitarist. He's "The Gentleman of Cumbia".

In 1984, Pintura Roja is called by Discos Horóscopo to record an LP before the end of the year. The group begins to capture the attention of the public, otherwise, curious about the voice of a woman that they initially confuse with the voice of a child, or perhaps attracted to their lyrics that reflected the dramas and common situations experienced daily by migrants and their first generations in Perú's capital: the abandonment of parents and sentimental counterparts, the incipient poverty and the uncertain present in which they lived. The woman as a fighter, capable of facing alone adversity and triumphant over sexism, appears in some songs, giving it greater relevance the fact that a woman with the power that her voice gave her, sang to them from the top of the stage.

In 1985, Pintura Roja gained popularity on the radio and acquired a one-hour program on Radio Inca called "Pinceladas Musicales". That year, readers of the newspaper El Popular choose it as the favorite band of the year.
It is for the second production that Zárate decided to seek support for Mily, who at that time danced and sang for up to six hours in each presentation. Zárate signs Sara Barreto, a 14-year-old huayno singer known as "Natachita", and gives her a new artistic name: La Muñequita Sally.

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