Much more than electronic tango

With influences ranging from french chanteurs to punk music to Piazzola and The Beastie Boys, the French-Uruguayan musician Luciano Supervielle, along with his band Bajofondo, created two years ago what was inmediately labeled as a jewel of electro-tango. In fact, Bajofondo Tango Club is an absolute masterpiece disguised as a sensorial trip. Turn your sound equipment on, push the ‘play’ button, and you will be transported to a whole universe of sounds -not all of them belonging to the category of ‘music’, i.e.: the passionate voice of Víctor Hugo Morales broadcasting a soccer match, Comédie Française-worth declamations-, mixing up popular uruguayan songs, hip hop, downtempo, electro-house, beautiful piano tunes, intricate bandoneon melodies, french chanson, Gardel-like voices and lots of tango piazzolla-style, and this combination of influences takes place not only in the record as a whole but in every single song. Listening to Bajofondo Tango Club you may discover each track works as an independent, meaningful unit on its own, but also that the whole piece tells a coherent story. An outstanding creative work in which each tune conjures up convoluted atmospheres and images of the Rio de la Plata, even if you have never been there. An intense experience. Watch out, Gotan Project!

(As of today, I have not listened yet to Supervielle & Bajofondo new album, Mar dulce.)

Photo: Supervielle Voxpop, 2007 © Guardianimagen

Back to house

Those of us who dwell in tech-house, minimal and underground territories should never forget how much these styles owe to pure vocal house and soulful music. If you listen carefully to a given electro track, for instance, it is likely you will be able to trace soul rhythms on most occasions. Thus, going back regularly to ‘basics’ is a healthy exercise for underground music lovers.

In this mix, I suggest to pay attention to the amazing tempo of Dawn Tallman´s ‘Joyful noise’, the wonderful voice of Elisabet Troy in ‘Higher grounds’, and the Sinatra-like air Dimitri from Paris gives to Mario Biondi´s ‘This is what you are’, to name but a few.

Tracklist:

01 Soulphiction · Angela
02 Mario Biondi · This is what you are (Dim´s housing the jazz mix)
03 Muthafunkaz · The way you love me (Dims TSOP version)
04 Dawn Tallman ft Michelle weeks · Joyful noise (Luis & Raffa main vocal mix)
05 Studio Apartment · Love is the answer (Reel People club instrumental mix)
06 Elisabeth Troy · Higher grounds (classic mix)
07 Stephanie Cooke · Holding on to your love (Grant Nelson mix)
08 Soul Switch · Don´t say love (Shelter mix)
09 Spencer Gray · Pillow talk (Asad Rizvi mix)
10 Jesse Saunders · In the heat of passion (Italo mix)

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Photo: Do a little dance, 2006 © Unflux