Love, Peace & Poetry | Latin American Psychedelic Music

Psychedelic Trippers from late 1960s and early 70s Latin America

Love, Peace & Poetry | Latin American Psychedelic Music | Who’d have thought that in countries where coca leaves and psychedelic mushrooms grow wild in every pasture and field that a rich and abundant psychedelic music scene would have thrived throughout the 1960-1970s

In the early 1980s a handful of US and European psychedelic record collectors received their first boxes of records from South America. We can only imagine their excitement and amazement when they began to unpack the colourful sleeves from the shredded newspaper and old cardboard.

At the same time, collectors in Southern California made their first forays south of the border, bringing back crates full of odd and unknown records from Mexican shops in border towns. Like the pieces of a large puzzle, hundreds of records from virtually every Latin American country have been uncovered and a somewhat coherent (though still incomplete) understanding of the amazing music scenes in those exotic and faraway places began to emerge.

Love, Peace & Poetry | Latin American Psychedelic Music

In Mexico, THE DUG DUG’S, LA REVOLUCION DE EMILIANO, and THREE SOULS IN MY MIND dominated a psychedelic music scene that also included bands like KALEIDOSCOPE and RENAISSANCE (whose original LPs are now some of the rarest and most sought after collectible records in the world). The Mexican psychedelic music scene continues to thrive today in the releases of bands like LOCH NESS, HUMUS, FROLIC FROTH and many others.

In South America, each country produced its own amazing collection of recordings in the decade 1965-1975. Brazil is represented on this compilation by SOM IMAGINARIO and MODULO 1000. Argentina, a country settled by Europeans, had the most active music scene in the 60s and 70s, a scene dominated by ALMENDRA, PAPPOS BLUES and VOX DEI (whose double LP “La Biblia” is the South American equivalent of “Sgt Pepper’s”. Records by BILLY BOND, PESCADO RABIOSO, DAVID LEBON, LOS GATOS, and many others are representative of the thriving music industry in that country.

Chile, a country with a turbulent political history, managed to produce the two incredible LPs by AGUATURBIA, and is represented here by LOS MAC’S; LOS VIDRIOS QUEBRADOS, and KISSING SPELL. Colombia was home to THE SPEAKERS. Uruguay was home to PSIGLO, DIAS DE BLUES. Bolivia had WARA, whose LPs are lust now receiving attention from collectors. Venezuela is represented here by LADIES W.C. (whose record, pressed on translucent coloured vinyl, is among the rarest LPs in the world).

Love, Peace & Poetry | Latin American Psychedelic Music

With its otherworldly blend of indigenous Indian cultures and European influences, Peru produced a catalogue of music seemingly out of proportion to its size and population. Represented on this compilation by TRAFFIC SOUND, LAGHONIA, WE ALL TOGETHER and (ST. THOMAS) PEPPER SMELTER, the history of Peruvian psychedelic music has been the most actively documented in recent years through the reissue series by labels like Background & Essex in the UK and Lazarus Audio in the US.

Living in the developed nations of the West, one can fall into the trap of thinking that we are the source of all things worthwhile. Travel is probably the best cure for this kind of cultural myopia. Spending time with the art of other cultures can also help remove the blinders of cultural tunnel vision. By the last notes of DUG DUG’S “It’s Over” at the end of this compilation you will, I hope, be left with the realization that LOVE, PEACE AND POETRY are universal. Enjoy. (Stan Denski,1997)