Album: La Revancha Del Tango
Artist: Gotan Project
Born: Buenos Aires / Paris
Released: October 2001
Genre: Tango
In my blog on Ástor Piazzolla, I explained how my trip to Buenos Aires in 2006 really opened my mind to tango music. Until then, I'd always thought of it as a dead or dying art, kept alive by a few obsessives. The truth is that it continues to thrive in Argentina and beyond. So, how did tango reinvent itself for a 21st century audience? In the case of Gotan Project, it was by virtue of an Argentine (Eduardo Makaroff) moving to Paris and joining forces with two French electronic musicians, Philippe Cohen Solal and Cristoph Müller. My first encounter with the group's work was in a bar in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires in 2006, where I remember asking the barman for the name of the song (Mi Confesión, a single from the group's second LP, Lunático) and writing the information down. I picked up a copy of Lunático when I was back in the UK, and not long afterwards delved deeper into their discography. Their first LP, La Revancha Del Tango, remains my favourite Gotan Project record, even after the release of Tango 3.0 in 2010.
Much of the group's music is familiar thanks to its extensive use in film and TV, with Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre) -- one of the standout tracks on this album -- famously appearing in the Hollywood romcom, Shall We Dance? (I can't personally confirm that!). This commercial appeal is quite odd for a record that contains a tango dub version of a Frank Zappa song, Chunga's Revenge, which lists the various artists that have inspired and helped to pioneer this "nuevo tango" movement (Piazzolla, Jens Krüger, Mad Professor, Zappa, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Osvaldo Pugliese, Thievery Corporation and Alberto Castillo). The gravelly voice in the song also references the album's title, with "revancha" translated as the revenge, or less literally the revival, of tango. Peter Kruder actually worked with the Gotan Project to produce a remixed version of Tríptico (which is better and longer -- 10mins+ -- than the original album version). Other highlights for me on the record are Época, with its sultry vocals and irresistible mix of beats, strings and bandoneon, and Una Música Brutal. There's also a cover of the theme music to 1972 film, Last Tango In Paris, and a version of Piazzolla's Vuelvo al Sur. All of these wonderful tracks, plus politically-minded songs like Queremos Paz and El Capitalismo Foráneo, make this an essential record.
In my blog on Ástor Piazzolla, I explained how my trip to Buenos Aires in 2006 really opened my mind to tango music. Until then, I'd always thought of it as a dead or dying art, kept alive by a few obsessives. The truth is that it continues to thrive in Argentina and beyond. So, how did tango reinvent itself for a 21st century audience? In the case of Gotan Project, it was by virtue of an Argentine (Eduardo Makaroff) moving to Paris and joining forces with two French electronic musicians, Philippe Cohen Solal and Cristoph Müller. My first encounter with the group's work was in a bar in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires in 2006, where I remember asking the barman for the name of the song (Mi Confesión, a single from the group's second LP, Lunático) and writing the information down. I picked up a copy of Lunático when I was back in the UK, and not long afterwards delved deeper into their discography. Their first LP, La Revancha Del Tango, remains my favourite Gotan Project record, even after the release of Tango 3.0 in 2010.
Much of the group's music is familiar thanks to its extensive use in film and TV, with Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre) -- one of the standout tracks on this album -- famously appearing in the Hollywood romcom, Shall We Dance? (I can't personally confirm that!). This commercial appeal is quite odd for a record that contains a tango dub version of a Frank Zappa song, Chunga's Revenge, which lists the various artists that have inspired and helped to pioneer this "nuevo tango" movement (Piazzolla, Jens Krüger, Mad Professor, Zappa, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Osvaldo Pugliese, Thievery Corporation and Alberto Castillo). The gravelly voice in the song also references the album's title, with "revancha" translated as the revenge, or less literally the revival, of tango. Peter Kruder actually worked with the Gotan Project to produce a remixed version of Tríptico (which is better and longer -- 10mins+ -- than the original album version). Other highlights for me on the record are Época, with its sultry vocals and irresistible mix of beats, strings and bandoneon, and Una Música Brutal. There's also a cover of the theme music to 1972 film, Last Tango In Paris, and a version of Piazzolla's Vuelvo al Sur. All of these wonderful tracks, plus politically-minded songs like Queremos Paz and El Capitalismo Foráneo, make this an essential record.
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