EL AGUAJAL - XIXA ( Los Shapis ) Peruvian music.

Los Shapis is a chicha group from Peru. They rose to prominence with their 1981 hit song, El Aguajal (which means The Swamp), a modern adaptation of traditional huayno. They were noted for their rainbow coloured costumes.
Los Shapis is a chicha group from Peru. They rose to prominence with their 1981 hit song, El Aguajal (which means The Swamp), a modern adaptation of traditional huayno. They were noted for their rainbow coloured costumes.

Los Shapis was one of the first chicha groups. "Chicha", which is also the name of a traditional beverage made of corn, is a musical rhythm created in the 1980s in Lima. It uses electric and acoustic instruments and was inspired by traditional Andean rhythms like the huayño. In the 1980s chicha was mostly heard and danced in Lima's poor suburbs (the so-called "Conos") by the rural migrants (and by their children) that came to Peru's capital since the 1950s and settled in the sand hills that surrounded Lima. Today chicha music, and its latest musical evolutions, can be heard all over the city, and Los Shapis has become a mythical group whose vocalist's (el Chapulín) life has lately inspired a new TV soap.

Chicha was the first of many other fusion rhythms (tecnocumbia, cumbia tropical) that could be described as a mixture of Colombia's traditional cumbia, andean rhythms, tropical Caribbean rhythms (guaracha, bolero), and electronic music; these new rhythms express today's most popular Peruvian music.

Home » Shows » Chicha Dust Under Their New Name – XIXA – At HoCo Fest FRIDAY
Chicha Dust Under Their New Name

If one is to rise from one’s ashes, one must be willing to burn. Tucson’s favorite phenom psychedelic cumbia band, Chicha Dust is en fuego, burning up dance floors all over Arizona. And just when you think you could not love their eclectic brand of cumbia more, they are ascending. Renamed XIXA (pronounced “SEEK-suh) the band’s dynamic ascent includes a blazing newly recorded EP, Shift and Shadow to be released in early November, followed by a scorching full-length album Bloodlines , to be released in February 2016. Both will be released by Barbés Records (home of the “Roots of Chicha”) and will be available on vinyl.

XIXA is spreading the intoxicating heat with a fine lineup of musical and songwriting talent: Musical alchemist, Gabriel Sullivan, who has a winning solo album Jvpiter, singing and guitar virtuoso, Brian Lopez with 2 solo albums under his considerately talented belt, bassist Geoffrey Hidalgo of Mostly Bears, Jason Urman who lends his keyboard skills to Mother Higgins Children’s
Band, plus Efren Cruz Chavez and Winston Watson igniting percussion and drums. The band has dedicated themselves to the hard edged guitar-driven cumbia popular in Peru, known as “chicha” and is wildly popular all over Arizona, playing to standing-room-only crowds. XIXA

On Friday, September 4 on the stage of Hotel Congress’ HoCo Fest, Chicha Dust will be resurrected as XIXA. The party begins when XIXA hits the stage. I defy anyone NOT to dance or at the very least sway to their fierce, infectious, latin tinged, psychedelic jams. The origin of chicha music is South American, namely Peruvian and named for a native intoxicating beverage. XIXA’s music is indeed intoxicating, making the name quite apropos.

XIXA’s desert rock roots meld beautifully with the guitar-heavy genres from, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. XIXA’s material is all original, reflecting the varied backgrounds of the band and their deep immersion into the world of cumbia. This blend of genres is played loudly and boldly suffusing any venue they play with the crackling electricity and energy of a summer monsoon.

[samir.abregu.]

Los shapis y chapulín el dulce ..the best

[anselj.torrescamac.]

LA RICA CUMBIA TROPICAL ANDINA!! ..DEL PERU PARA EL MUNDO ....Saludos desde Lima - Peru...

[MegaMilagro]

Con modestia lo digo Peru esta DE moda en todo el planeta

[MrJcc]

Bravo con el CHICHA' n' ROLL ....Musica Peruana

[ElRamiroJoaquin]

Señores tenemos que hacer de esta banda muy conocida !!! Es una muestra que esta gran Cumbia Peruana es pegajosa y puede ser tranquilamente del gusto del Mundo entero!!!

[MegaMilagro]

Este grupo toca BELLISIMO LA musica peruana
De Peru con amor para el mundo
BENDICIONES

[danielalbrecht]

Music is a universal language. I recall when I was 10 years and my older brother upset and angry because I liked chicha and cumbia peruana. Me a middle class from Lima liking music of poor uneducated migrants from aboriginal origins from the andean region! How I dared to like it and a lot!!! I listened it in AM frequency radio stations since I was very young. Lima doubled its population due to the civil war we had against a fanatic terrorist group for 12 years. It started in 1980. Internally displaced people created a new Lima. Conservative upper and middle classes felt threatened that "their" city would be "invaded" by "cholos" (a derogatory term to designate people from andean origin of aboriginal or mixed origin). Basically the same stereotype of what it is designated in the US as "Hispanic". Skin color and body features eventually. But in a highly racist country as Peru, chicha was an expression of identity of more than 2/3 of my country and at the same time a representation of social exclusion and racism. Los Shapis were not the first chicha group, but they were the perfect mix of talent of jaime moreyra in his guitars and a church chorus singer called Julio simeon o Chapulin el dulce. In those years the Mexican TV show el Chapulin Colorado was a hit in all Latin America. Julio Simeon had the same body features as the character on TV and it was liked as much as the TV character. Before and after Shapis other bands have emerged from different cities in Peru. Chicha is a type of cumbia Cumbia peruana that had emerged since 1968 with fusion of Colombian Cumbia with creole and psychodelic music. Both creole and Psychodelic music are very different genres but share the same style of playing the guitar (el punteo). Cumbia peruana was created in the garages of Lower impoverished classes in Lima. Which culturally is very different from the andean regions. It's mestizo culture forged for centuries in the capital of a once rich capital of the Spanish empire in America. Chicha adds to Cumbia peruana the andean feeling of a fractured society with lyrics talking about the daily struggles of poor andean people plus hope and happiness, less rock than the initial Cumbia peruana from Lima, and the undeniable nice personality of Chapulin el Dulce (losely translated (Chapulin the Cute). Songs talk about love and joy despite the struggles. After 38 years you see Peru changing social attitudes. Still a long way to walk, but the fact that Cumbia, and chicha, are played everywhere is a sign of a good change in mentality. One day, when I was 13, I was returning to Lima and we got stranded in an airport in North Peru. It was a black out as a result of a car bomb in the powe grid. Very common in those years of civil war. After 5 really boring hours of wait, I suddenly show Los Shapis band arriving to the airport to travel back to Lima. They had been touring in North Peru. I told my father that those men in rainbow 🌈 color clothes were Los Shapis. My father, a white Peruvian, the son of very poor German settlers who came to the poorest regions of the Andes in the 1930s, approached Chapulin talking to him loudly, coloquially and as if they were friends of many years and told him that I was his Number 1 fan. Chapulin made a couple of jokes, really genuine man, and signed me a piece of paper saying "for my dear Daniel, from his forever friend Chapulin el Dulce". I never forget that moment.
For cumbia peruana from Lima you
can see Los Destellos (the first cumbia peruana band in 1968 with Elsa, Jardin de Amor), Los Ilusionistas (La Colegiala, Las Limenas, La enfermera del Amor), Grupo Maravilla (Antahuara, Sarita Colonia, Chica vacilona), Grupo Centeno, Grupo Guinda, Los Ecos.
For chicha itself Los Shapis for sure, Chacalon y la Nueva Crema, Grupo Celeste (Viento has lyrics that really touch your heart), Vico y su grupo Karicia (different from Karicia of Argentina), Pintura Roja. From chicha the greatest bands were undoubtedly Shapis and Chacalon. Shapis from the andean regions. Chacalon also aboriginal andean origin but born and raised in very impoverished and violent shanty towns in Lima. There are also Cumbia bands in the north of Peru, with sounds closer to the original folk Colombian Cumbia (Cuarteto Continental, Agua Marina de Sechura, and Armonía 10). Also Cumbia from the amazonian forests regions in Peru (juaneco y su combo, los Wemblers, los Mirlos). Most cumbia in Argentina is the result of the migration of millions of Peruvians to Argentina during times of civil war and the subsequent economic crisis we suffered until the mid nineties. Cumbia and Chicha bands went regularly touring Argentina. Until native Argentina Cumbia bands were formed. It is different Cumbia now in Argentina but equally interesting process of initially marginalised lower clases ("música de negro" is still called) that after 25 years is played in all parties regardless of social class. It was in Argentina, in a concert of a Peruvian chicha signer (Tongo), where an anthem of Peruvian migrants was composed that is now very popular in Peru. Its called Sufre Peruano Sufre (suffer peruano suffer if want to succeed. Loosely: work hard Peruvian if you want to succeed as émigré). An important contribution to make chicha accepted across all Peru was Bareto. A Peruvian rock band of Upper and Middle (mostly educated and white) origins from Lima that one day, as this Xixa band in the US, rediscovered (despite the racial marginalisation and social bias) the artistic value of Cumbia and Chicha and helped to popularise the music across my country. It is a good band, yet the identity and origins are not in the impoverished andes ravaged by war, nor the violent shanty towns and barriadas of lima. Music is brotherhood.

[titolopez]

Es por eso que ahora en mi banda haremos CHICHA para que pueda ser consumida a nivel XIXA por difundir la musica Peruana!

[albertopizarro]

Que bien nuestra música la cumbia peruana esté por todas partes del planeta que lo tocan músicos extranjeras.. saludos desde Perú...

[raphaelguzman]

La chicha o música tropical andina es un género musical PERUANO que fusiona ritmos tropicales con la música andina, principalmente (huayno). Nació en la década de 1960 como manifestación del fenómeno migratorio desde las áreas andinas hacia las ciudades de la costa, principalmente Lima.

[jericovanlee]

VIVA MÚSICA...CHICHA PSICODÉLICA (AMAZÓNICA, ANDINA Y COSTERA) PERUVIAN...TROPIDÉLICA PURA

[jhonprincipepena]

Mi rica chicha carajo, y ahora la disfruta el mundo

[valentinarojas]

Tarde o temprano se iban a dar cuenta k la música chicha o cumbia era para el mundo orgullosos de ser hijo de provinciano

[TheMario]

Greatest band of Chincha, wonderful musicians.

[avaloscondorijoseluis]

amo esta banda hace honor a mi tierra kerida

[luzespinoza]

Tantos recuerdos con este tema musical que uno se llena de nostalgia

[lleydilucia]

Que loco mientras en Europa lo bailan sin prejuicios ...aquí en Perú sobretodo en lima aún existe cierto tufillo de menosprecio. Me encanta que lo bailan 👍👍

[mariaericagerimartinez]

MUSICA DE MI TIERRA CHUPACA - HUANCAYO PERU LOS SHAPIS CHAPULIN Y JAIME MOREIRA

[raphaelguzman]

EXCELENTE TOCADA GRACIAS A XIXA POR DIFUNDIR MÚSICA PERUANA !!!

[PabloCernaDepaz]

Lindo viajar a cualquier parte del planeta y escuchar chicha.. Como nos envidiaran de algunos vecinos jaja