Pakapi Records & Was Ist Das? present…. La Psicotropia

“La Psciotropia” is a compilation album exploring the new high-tech psychedelic sounds of South America.  The last couple of years have seen me falling under the spell of new South American bands Ø+yn, Montibus Communitas [represented on here by Brayan on his own] and GMC. I had been thinking of asking Guillermo M. Cerredo [aka GMC and Panchasila] if he would help me put together something like this when he told me about this project and how he was wanted to get it released not just on digital but on tape as well. Needless to say, I told him right away that I would do it. His own label, Pakapi Records are handling the digital release.

As I suspected, there’s a lot going on down there. Unifying a lot of different musical styles, the sounds are unmistakably South American. Its there in the rhythm, the mood and the atmosphere but all distorted through the prism of experimentation and higher states of mind. We have beats a plenty, we have psychedelic fogs, we equatorial futurism, we have deep production and we have the soundtrack to what remains of your Summer.

Side A

False Sir Nicholas – Octarine Pathways
Efrain Rozas – That’s Right Bitch
Tomas Tello – Cumbia de Yuko
Titanik – Null 21
Panchasila – Cumbia Hindú

Side B

Efrain Rozas – Alkali
Los Siquicos Litoraleños – Cumbia Cyborg
Chico Tropico – Leo´n cruza el desierto
Diego Bodego – Juanechoe y su planta magica
Ø+yn – Una Pipa Con Esencia De Rosas
Brayan – Los caminos ya se abren a tu encuentro

“By its end, La Psicotropia seems like something of an actual landmark compilation; a real coming together of this hugely appealing, thriving and undersung scene. Perhaps most vitally, these South American experimentalists aren’t afraid to commit to both danceability and psychedelic musical anarchy, and the results are pretty damn special.” – The Quietus

“Excellent new compilation from the people who brought us the recent Isengrind cassette that surveys the sounds of the new psychedelic music coming out of South America: this is blast from out of nowhere, with a bunch of groups, working in relative isolation but channelling the ghosts of precursors like the sainted Traffic Sound and Los Parajos via contemporary technology and DIY garage band formulas. Much of the music seems to connect at a tangent with the experiments of James Ferraro, Spencer Clark and Jan Anderzen, with small instruments, druggy/dubbed beats, extended cultic nod-out jams and an overall nocturnal 3am vibe but there’s also a heady bedroom Krautrock vibe, with an endless, open space feel and the kinda fidelity that makes it feel like it is being broadcast via massed third eyes.” – Volcanic Tongue

“8/10 A cassette compilation here of contemporary psychedelic electronic music from the South American underground. There’s been increasing exposure over recent years of the region’s incredibly rich musical culture and even a few ‘breakthrough’ acts working at the more outré end of the spectrum (Columbia’s Las Malas Amistades and Meridian Brothers spring to mind), but this release feels like an invigorating taster of a scene that thrives beneath the radar of commercial interests.

As the compilation covers a vast geographical and cultural expanse, the tracks are quite varied but what seems to unite them is the combination of unmistakable latin rhythms with some properly wigged out sound manipulation- you’re very unlikely to have anything in your music collection that sounds like much of this stuff. Listening through the tracks, you can’t help get drawn in by the infectious rhythms and the freewheeling and at times almost random sounding sound shapes getting thrown out. One example is Diego Bodego’s track ‘Juanecho Y Su Planta Mágica’, which runs a hypnotic groove underneath a kaleidoscopic tapestry of shifting samples; bizarrely amusing one second, deep and slightly disturbing the next. Elsewhere you get unhinged cumbia (Efraín Rozas), exotic sample-based motorik psych (False Sir Nicholas) and all-out freeform weirdness (Ø+yn). ¡Chévere!” – Jim at Norman Records

Edition of 100 on Plum purple cassettes in grey shells

WAS3