Listening to Chuquimamani-Condori bombard Faith Hill’s “Breathe” with kullawada drums and meteoric explosions, drowning that pleasant Y2K-era country-pop song in an apocalypse of supernova bursts and charred alien remnants falling to earth, a flood of memories came rushing back: standing in Target with my parents, watching dozens of identical Faith Hills mouth the words from the rack of TV displays. Yet, as all artists should, Chuquimamani-Condori has bigger fish to fry than whether or not you relate to them. It’s not a stretch to wonder if Alborada’s supremely cheesy pan-global New Age hit “Ananau,” which also gets its guts spilled on their recent 100-minute compilation Edits, triggers something in the Bolivian-American’s mind akin to how I feel hearing the Faith Hill song. But to generate emotion via the Barnum effect is child’s play. To make music that sounds like it was ripped straight out of your soul, to grab the listener by the collar and demand you feel exactly what you’re feeling right now — that takes work, and guts, and Chuqimamani-Condori has proven again and again that they have both.
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·