The Mylodon label has been responsible for turning up some great bands from Chile, and it’s nice to see them reach over to their northern neighbors in Peru, where we find the excellent band Flor de Loto. Peru had quite the psychedelic scene in the late 60s and early 70s, and they possessed one of the world’s most exciting music movement of the day. But political conflicts were particularly hard on Peru, and the country degenerated into chaos throughout most of the 70s and 80s. Stability seems to have returned, and now we’re getting a new crop of music acts. Flor de Loto are very much a modern band, but one with two feet in the past. One foot goes to the heady days of the early 1970s that produced the progressive rock scene. The other “feet” goes way back to the indigenous tribes, and their musical traditions and folklore. So along with the usual rock instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums, they have a dedicated winds performer who plays on a variety of flutes, both classical and traditional. Somewhere between the aggressive Japanese band Naikaku and the classic Chilean group Los Jaivas is where you’ll spot the sound of Flor de Loto. Their formula is one that can go in many different directions and still be exciting. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.