A feast of Peruvian songs on the menu

Music and food go together like, well, ham and eggs. So a restaurant launching its own record label makes perfect sense. Especially when that restaurant is Ceviche, a noisy, buzzy Peruvian joint which opened in Soho in London nine months ago.

“I’m bored to death of hearing deep house in trendy restaurants”, says Martin Morales, its Lima-born proprietor and former head of Disney Music where he launched acts like the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. “In 20 minutes at Ceviche you will hear punk, funk, chicha, cumbia...”

When diners started to ask him what they were listening to, Morales saw an opportunity to share the music he grew up with, and Tiger’s Milk Records was born.

Named after the piquant marinade left behind on a plate of the restaurant’s signature raw fish dish, the label’s first seven-inch features two remastered cult classics: “Meshkalina” (1969) by the percussionist Paco Zambrano and “La Cumbia Del Pacurro” (1978) a psychedelic cumbia (dance) number by Juaneco.

In future, Morales plans to school listeners in 60 years of Peruvian pop, from Los Seicos, a Sixties punk-rock band to Dengue Dengue Dengue! a new dubstep duo from Lima. There’s only one thing missing from the mix. “There won’t be any panpipes”, he confirms. “We’re presenting an urban, cutting-edge vision of Peru.”

www.tigersmilkrecords; bandcamp.com