Bajofondo Tango Club - Bajofondo Tango Club

List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $6.19
You Save: $11.79 (66%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

• BAJOFONDO TANGO CLUB

Music reviews of Bajofondo Tango Club

Music Review: Speaking from tangoland
Rating: 3 Stars

Most important are Ex-hip-hoppers-turned-DJs Campo(donico) from Peyote Asesino and Luciano Supervielle from Platano Macho (by the way, they were quite ahead of the rap-hiphop-metal wave with their seminal bands, together with a number of other "latin music" bands back in the days). They perform the live DJ acts while Santaolalla seems to deal mainly with the corporate/marketing side.

The album has a song written by Jorge Drexler too (campo produced his records adding a fitting, subtle electronica background to his modern version of regional music like candombe, regional folk, etc. - check that out as a side dish if you can) The song is quite good and is sung by Adriana Varela, a great Argie singer with a great raspy voice. Check her solo albums too. That's real tango, no electronica there.

Santaolalla is actually quite useless onstage, but somehow he always seems to be there when things happen musically in these latitudes (Vela Puerca, Cafe Tacuba, Peyote Asesino, Divididos, etc.) so I give him credit.

As for the record itself, I agree with the criticism above although I do own it and like it. I got it stage-side after seeing them play without an idea of what I was going to see.

The album is a first, more or less basic exploration of electronica for these people and yes, I felt it didn't live up to my expectations when it comes to having the spirit and strenght of real tango as we know it here (tango is as much from Montevideo as it is from BsAs). The breaking-up of too-short tango samples to match the underlying non-tango beats leave a sweetener kind of aftertaste in your mouth. Not quite the natural, smooth blending one would expect (as was the case with the countless bossa/electronica experiences around).

Actually, the record's best moment is near the end, in a song where suddenly all the electronica stops to leave a solo bandoneon for some seconds. That works a treat and you find yourself waiting for it to happen again. But hey, that's just tango! Just a sample from an old tango record! So that's what I mean, the tango is enhanced by the contrast of the sudden change, and maybe we would not have liked the rest of the original tango song, granted, but still, it feels like much much more can be done. That's not entirely bad, being this one of the two first records in the genre. Hooking but not entirely satisfactory, leaves you wanting for more to come.

I also feel the other one, Gotan Project has less quality, a certain amateurish feeling, particularly in the vocal and lyrics department, wich you might not perceive if you are not familiar with the way we speak in the Rio de la Plata (Montevideo - Buenos Aires area, tango central). The girl doesn't sound like she's a tango singer. Must be the phrasing, I don't know. Maybe she is a tango person but still feels a bit lost in electronica. Something's missing to me anyway.

But hey, we are talking about just 2 records, so get both and as others said here, let's wait for this movement to get a little bit more solid. You can count on many of these records poping up in the area in the near future. It always works like that down here. The popcorn syndrome.

My 3 stars are actually 3.6 or something like that. Not 4, but just to leave room for that very special album yet to come.

Maybe it would be good to drop Santaolalla and get the french electronica guy behind Gotan working with the real tangueros from BF and Campo and Supervielle's rithm and songwriting instincts. That would be a good one.

Anyway, eso es todo. Enjoy it.

Description of Bajofondo Tango Club

Dance & DJ CDs

• Music > Styles
• World Music
• Latin Music
• Pop