Puro Tayta Shanti

From the first moments of this compilation, it's impossible not to feel transported to another plane. The repetitive, hammering bass line, the high-pitched female voices and, let's not forget, the cows mooing in time with the music, all let you know that you are in the Peruvian Andes, but it's never sounded as ebullient as this. That's because it's a santiago, a type of song played during the Santiago festivities that happen every July in Peru's Mantaro valley, which happen to be the wildest celebrations of the year.

Puro Tayta Shanti brings together a host of performers of this style, beginning with that rip-roaring opener by Duo Las Perlas De Huancavelica. At times it's exhilarating stuff, simple one-chord songs driven by combinations of harp, rustic brass instruments and hand drums, with cheering and whooping never far away (when there's not screeching voices, as on ‘Pisuy Rumi’). Yet, there is also a lot of sentimentality here, heard in the emotive vocals of Yolanda de Carhuamayo or Cazador Huanca, whose sweet, understated deliveries brighten the scene, even when there's an unrepentant beat never far away. With extensive liner notes in the vinyl edition, this is an album for those who want to party like they're 4,000m above sea level.