Internationally labelled as nuggets (after the original compilation of the same name concocted by Jac Holzman and Lenny Kaye in 1972 for the Elektra label), the more common garage rock label has been used to place and describe one of the most fertile chapters of rock & roll history during its most creative years. An underground story which has luckily become known, with participants from all around the globe which included anonymous musicians, independent record labels with impossible names and ridiculously limited pressings, often not more than a few hundred copies.

After three previous volumes in our series “Algo Salvaje” devoted to the Spanish nuggets, this new instalment explores the darkest, neglected and rebellious side of Peruvian beat. Many of the 14 tracks are reissued for the first time, including extremely hard-to-find records, and are mostly taken from the Discos MAG catalog, owned, and directed by Manuel A. Guerrero.

Guerrero’s intuition and talent for business allowed his artists to be given creative freedom. Despite initially feeling challenged by the unusual songs that the bands proposed to him, several musicians of the time agree that he ended up giving in and betting on them. As a consequence, the MAG studio was always very busy, working as a sound lab for musicians and engineers to learn how to record these new sounds properly. Songs were recorded weekly, including originals and versions that were often better than the original.

The tracks chosen for the occasion, a selection filtered strictly by their musical value, adhere to the rules of the classic nugget genre while demonstrating the permeability of garage sound and its inevitable evolution at the turn of the decade (1965-1970) through mixes that embraced psychedelia, soul, beat and tropical arrangements. Epic and pretty wild. Just the kind of material that this record label usually handles.

This compilation includes notes by genre-expert Marco Caballero (freneticos.net) featuring the original record labels and artist photos.