Rating:
Genre:
World
Release Date: 04/03/2007
Like its
Gypsy cousin
flamenco, Argentine-originated
tango music has experienced an ongoing evolution in recent years. But where the new
flamenco artists have readily welcomed elements of
electronica,
jazz, dance, and
rock into the fold, and the resultant hybrid has produced at least one superstar band in
Ojos de Brujo,
tango has for the most part been more resistant to radical reinvention -- and not as successful when it does try something new. Even the best known of the new
tango groups, France's
Gotan Project (who do not appear on this various-artists collection), play it relatively safe and never veer unrecognizably far from the
Astor Piazzolla model (he too is MIA here). Most of the contemporary artists on
Think Global: Tango are purists -- their love for the tradition is palpable and unflappable and they have no interest in abandoning it. The guitars and bandoneons play by the rules set forth in an earlier century, the romance and sensuality are front and center, and the over-the-top-ness of it all is something to be proud of, not muted. When
electronics do come into play, as in the
Gotan-influenced
Carlos Libedinsky's
"Tres Son Multitud" and
Tanghetto's
"Una Llamada" (One Call), the urban overkill is tempered but much of the inherent charm of
tango is lost. While there is often a dark sense of mystery and menace to the
tango nuevo tracks that is absent (or at least obscured) in the traditional acoustic
tangos, even
34 Puñaladas' tough, guitar-driven
"Una Chueno/Cuando Me Entres a Fallar" and
Juan Carlos Cáceres' gravel-mouthed
"Cumtango" -- which celebrates
tango's African roots -- can't help but emit a comeliness and magnificence that the experimenters lack.
~Jeff Tamarkin, All Music Guide
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