1383  Anybody familiar with Bajofondo Tango Club?

Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2003 00:28:26 -0600
From: Tom Stermitz <Stermitz@RAGTIME.ORG>
Subject: Anybody familiar with Bajofondo Tango Club?

"I've always thought that the sight of a child singing tangos is
nothing short of horrifying."

Tango and trip-hop?

The music coming out of Gustavo Santaolalla's Echo Park studio sounds
like nothing you have ever heard before. Sure, the plump,
electronically generated beat brings to mind the manic intensity of
the drum+bass genre. Underneath its fury, however, lies the
unmistakable sound of the bandoneón , the accordion-like instrument
that defines Argentinian tango and its bitter nostalgia. Languid and
energetic, uplifting and morbid at the same time, the combination of
sounds is simply bewitching. The Bajofondo Tango Club has just been
born.


Interesting interview with Gustavo Santaolalla, who put out an album
called Bajofondo Tango Club, which I haven't heard:

https://www.grammy.com/features/latino/0812_bajofondo.html



--

Tom Stermitz
https://www.tango.org/
stermitz@tango.org
303-388-2560

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 10:40:41 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: Anybody familiar with Bajofondo Tango Club?

Tom Stermitz wrote:

>Anybody familiar with Bajofondo Tango Club?
>Bajofondo Tango Club, which I haven't heard

Somebody puts out a CD with graphics of women's legs in fishnet hose and
includes a bandoneon among the instruments, uses tango in the title and
everyone thinks tango. I know that I did.

When Susan and I went looking for the Bajofondo Tango Club CD, we had
trouble finding it. The CD was in the World Music section rather than the
Tango section where we had been looking for it. I think that
categorization pretty much explains it all. The music on the Bajofondo
Tango Club CD doesn't sound like tango to me--neither old nor modern
Argentine tango, not ballroom tango. It sounds like the music that might
be used in some Euro-oriented dance clubs in South Beach (Florida), but
unlike that Gotan Project, the music does not have a pulsating beat, nor
do I hear an undercurrent of tango rhythms.

A contemporary recording, it does have good fidelity.

Can someone dance tango to it? I think we have been through that
discussion recently. :-)
Actually, I played a cut from the CD while we were cleaning up after a
recent milonga, and one of the couples who was helping with the clean up
did dance tango steps to it instead of working.

With best regards,
Steve

Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas
https://www.tejastango.com