Gavin B.

The Gotan Project Adds a Tango Flavor to the Outernational Music Scene


Gotan Project brings the romance of the tango and the high fashion sense of the old school Cordoba ballroom gigalo to electronica movement.

Philippe Cohen Solal and Christoph H. Mueller worked together in the Boys from Brazil and Stereo Action Unlimited as early as 1996 on the Parisian deejay scene. The two self described "top Argentinian musicians living in Paris" became interested in remixing their native tango music in a dub style toward the end of the 90s and were joined by a third member Eduardo Makaroff another French/Latino deejay to form the nucleus of the Gotan Project. Gotan's dub tango revolution has become the primary force behind the newfound interest in Argentine music in the underground club scene in Europe.

In 2000 Gotan created a buzz in the UK with a string of 12" singles on their own French based Ya Basta label and earned the devotion of such electronica tastemakers as Jazzanova, Gilles Peterson, Mr. Scruff, and Thievery Corporation. Gotan toured the UK and was signed to the influential XL label. Gotan left XL after one album and returned to releasing music on their own homegrown Ya Basta label.

As the past decade progressed, the music of Gotan's neo-tango music became another cultural element within the outernational realm of the electronica movement, along with other worldbeat genres like samba, salsa, reggae, bossa nova, rumba, and the many and varied musical genres of the Sub-Saharan African region like juju and the township jazz of South Africa.

The Gotan Project's remixed versions of classic tango are just beginning to reach the ears of music fans outside of Gotan's musical axis of France, Spain and the Uk. Tango 3.0, their 3rd album will be released in a little less than four weeks. I tried every trick in the book to get an advance preview song from Tango 3.0 but Gotan and Yo Basta are keeping this release under tight wraps until it's official April 19th release date. The best I could come up with is this sexy little 30 second teaser:




To make up for the bevity of that video I've also including Gotan's version of the sublimely sensual tango classic Epoca: