12'01

GOTAN PROJECT La Revancha Del Tango (XLCD148) XL Recordings 2001 10 Tracks. 58mins49secs. Buy this CD on line now

Phillipe Cohen-Solal and Christophe Mueller started working together in 1996, and consequently set up their own label, Ya Basta! to release their material. With two projects under their belt, Boys From Brazil and Stereo Action Unlimited, they explored the connections between traditional Brazilian beats and modern dance music at a time when it hadn’t been done much. In the late nineties, they teamed up with long-term friend Eduardo Makaroff to form Gotan Project and give an Argentinean twist to their music. Being based in Paris, a city with a long tradition of welcoming musical influences from all over the world, was definitely instrumental in the inspiration of the trio, as they were able to recruit a handful of exiled Argentinean musicians, including Nini Flores and Gustavo Beytelmann. La Revancha Del Tango is flooded with bandonions (a small South American form of accordion), and Latin inspired beats, to which the trio give a modern touch, and explore the sensuality of Tango, on and of the dance floor. But Gotan Project don’t just take musical influences lightly. This album is everything but dance music with a South American flavour. Cohen-Solal, Mueller and Makaroff work with their guests, let them occupy the front of the stage while they apply diverse textures. Inspired by these ancestral ambiences, in the background. La Revancha Del Tango is haunted by the natural melancholy of Tango music, and the compositions become even more romantic and empowering on the stunning Epoca and Una Música Brutal, when a languorous voice comes landing on these beautiful musical structures. When the Latin vibe gets entangled with Dub, on Chunga’s Revenge, Santa María (Del Buen Ayre) or El Capitalismo Foráneo, Gotan Project only bring together two genres that have much more in common that meet the ear. Beat deconstruction and sound distortion have always been integrant part of both genres. The rebel character of Tango, inviting people to express themselves through dance, finds its roots in the same need to escape ordinary life as Dub, although for slightly different reasons. The strength of Gotan Project lies in the way the trio assimilates the native cultures of their influences, without corrupting them in any way. If La Revancha Del Tango is certainly not an album of Tango music as such, it offers far more than a simple reinterpretation of genres, even on the club classic Triptico, when the South American roots meet New York’s deep house in an unexpected clash of cultures. Gotan Project achieve with La Revancha Del Tango a brilliant record in many ways. Their very modern approach to classic genres is refreshing and incredibly in tune with today’s musical culture. A fine record indeed.

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TRACK LISTING 01 Queremos Paz 06 Una Música Brutal 02 Epoca 07 El Capitalismo Foráneo 03 Chunga's Revenge 08 Last Tango In Paris 04 Triptico 09 La Del Ruso 05 Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre) 10 Vuelvo Al Sur

THE SURFER'S GUIDE TO GOTAN PROJECT XL RECORDINGS With a roster including the likes of The Prodigy, Basement Jaxx, The Avalanches, Badly Drawn Boy or The White Stripes, XL Recordings are displaying an increasing diverse musical palette.