Notes

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TRACKS
1 Lux Barclay, Magnet, Sanguinetti 2:50
2 El Gusano (Alice in Wonderland) Patrón, Sanguinetti 3:57
3 La Camita Traffic Sound 2:46
4 You Got to Me Sure! Traffic Sound 2:08
5 White Deal/Poco/Big Deal Barclay, Sanguinetti 3:50
6 Suavecito Bean, Téllez, Zárate 3:04
7 Chicama Way Barclay, Magnet, Nevares, Patrón, Sanguinetti, Thorne 7:43
8 Those Days Have Gone Barclay, Magnet, Nevares, Patrón, Sanguinetti, Thorne 3:20
9 Solos Traffic Sound 3:16
10 Survival Patrón, Sanguinetti 2:22
11 A Beautiful Day Patrón, Sanguinetti 2:37
12 Marabunta Patrón, Sanguinetti 10:03
13 Yesterdays Game Barclay, Magnet, Nevares, Patrón, Sanguinetti, Thorne 5:41
14 Sky Pilot Briggs, Burdon, Jenkins, McCulloch, Weider 6:36
15 Meshkalina Barclay, Magnet, Nevares, Patrón, Sanguinetti, Thorne 5:27
16 What You Need and What You Want Barclay, Magnet, Nevares, Patrón, Sanguinetti, Thorne 4:10
17 Tibet's Suzettes (You Can't Apreciate a Gift from God) Barclay, Magnet, Nevares, Patrón, Sanguinetti, Thorne 4:40
18 Inca Snow Barclay, Sanguinetti 5:14
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CREDITS
Jaime Delgado Aparicio Orchestration, Realization
Bertrand Tase Bernard Design, Photography
Luis Nevares Percussion, Bateria
Rizo Patrón, Freddy Guitar, Vocals
Manuel Sanguinetti Percussion, Vocals, Letra
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REVIEW
By BENJAMIN MILER (Eugene, OR United States)
You bet! Who could imagine Peru having a rock scene? Peru is often thought of as a country that might not be the most inviting to have people pick up guitars rather than panpipes and quenas. Peru is one of two South American countries well known (Bolivia being the other) as having a population majority that's full-blood indigenous (descendants of Incas), although the members of Traffic Sound appear to be mestizo. We are far more familiar with traditional Peruvian music that tended heavy to panpipes, quena, charango, etc. Well, it looks like Peru had a few rock groups, like Tarkus (apparently, despite their name, they don't sound much like ELP), Fragil, and this particular band, Traffic Sound.
Traffic Sound managed four albums from 1968 to 1971, and in 2005 comes this compilation, Yellow Sea Years. Much of this CD focuses on their fourth album, Lux (1971), although even a couple songs from that album are missing, so if you want that entire album, you'll have to buy it. Their other albums include A Bailar Go Go (1968), Virgin (1969), and Traffic Sound (1970). Virgin was apparently the album that the band found their own identity, as A Bailar Go Go featured lots of covers of other people's songs, including Eric Burdon and the Animals' "Sky Pilot", and all their other albums featured no covers. Really, this is a great rock band, with vocals in English and Spanish, combining minor prog rock tendencies, Santana-style Latin rock, hard rock, psychedelia, and pop. Much of the Latin influences are of the Afro-Latin variety (heavily percussive that no doubt had African origins), although the booklet that comes with this CD states Afro-Peruvian, it sounds like Afro-Cuban to me, the same style that heavily influenced Santana. The group consisted of vocals, guitars, drums, percussion (including Latin percussion, similar to Santana's), flute, and sax. You can hear influences from the likes of Santana, Jethro Tull (especially the flute, which is very much like Ian Anderson), even Traffic (the British band, that is). With saxes present on some of these cuts, they get me thinking a bit of Van der Graaf Generator (although without that band's dark nature, and not as progressive). All the songs are their own, aside from their cover of Eric Burdon & the Animals' "Sky Pilot". Highlights for me include "La Camita", "White Deal/Poco/Big Deal", and "Meshkalina". "Suavecito" is more pop-oriented, reminds me of something you've heard on early '70s AM radio (had this song been a big American hit, it could've found its way on the Have a Nice Day CD compilation of '70s AM hits). "White Deal/Poco/Big Deal" has a folk feel, while "La Camita" has a Santana-like feel, while "Marabunta" finds the band stretching out, the lengthiest piece, which contains some nice trippy organ work. "Lux" is more hard rock, complete with raspy vocals, but has nice organ and flute work. Many bands from non-English speaking countries who sing in English fall flat on their face, but there's seems to be no accent detected in Traffic Sound's English. I really think this band should've went far, they had all the ingredients to even make it here in America, but it's too bad too many Americans feel any music not from America or Great Britain is inferior (which is obviously myth, given the amount of non-American, non-British albums I have which totally amaze me).
By the way, it's worth mentioning that this music was all recorded while Peru was under a military dictatorship. I am always surprised when a country is under a dictatorship that rock music would even allowed, but somehow they managed under whatever restrictions might have been in their place.
OK, so the sound quality of this CD isn't the best, some of the cuts suddenly sound muddy at the end, but I imagine that had a lot to do with the band's lack of access to the best equipment (you can't imagine Peru having easy access to cutting edge recording equipment).

Regardless, you won't believe how great this band is, Traffic Sound is every much as good as their British and American counterparts of their time. This is certainly a great place to start to know this band!
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BIOGRAPHY
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www.velhorockeiro.blogspot.com
15:46 28/9/2008