went to a magical night at shepherds bush empire to see the gotan project . if you have not come across them their debut album la revancha del tango was amazing 5 years ago. since then they have produced a couple more which are equally brilliant. it’s basically tango meets electronica. you imagine you are on a street in paris or buenos aires…
the line up was two DJs (the usual knob twiddling at the back), cello, 2 violins and a viola, guitar, piano, squeeze box and vocalist. i honestly never woiuld have believed i would pay money to go and hear someone play a squeeze box and i know nothing about tango. but it just goes to show – never write anything off…
i was thinking this is a great example of how tradition should work. tango began in argentina, got exported to europe (paris was the first place where it caught on) and gotan project have taken it back to its buenos aires roots while at the same time carrying on the european influence and mixing it with electronica. no doubt there are some tango purists who see the whole thing as heretical but from my (totally ignorant) point of view this is a tradition being made alive to lots of people in creative and new ways. i read a paper on culture last week with a concept called hybridity – i’ll come back to this at some point but the basic idea is that culture is not static. a good example would be when two people from different cultures marry – they both bring their elements to the marriage, but rather than choosing one culture or the other they negotiate and probably come up with some very new cultural ideas – hybridity or a third space. it seems to mne this is what gotan project is – argentina meets tango meets paris meets electronica – hybridity, a third space, something wonderfully new (and yet authentic)…
anyway not sure what came over me there – what i meant to say was – what a great gig! go see them if you get the chance
I grew listening to old school tango and gotan are one of my favourite acts!!!
you’ve got some good thoughts going there and my comment would be that hybridity is simply life in latin america and probably a lived experience for most of the cosmopolitan world.
we all get very confused with authenticity when we mix up “lived, real, encultured” with notions of purity. the cultural cork-sniffers have it all wrong. everytime someone asks me for an “authentic” curry recipie I just want to tell them to go to 10 different resturants in Delhi and order exactly the same thing, but I know it will just make them cry.
moving from ‘anti’ to ‘other’…
have you checked out the astor piazzolla remix album? the don of tango remixed by contemporary producers/artists etc – well worth a listen if you like gotan project. also if you are into interesting hybrids check the balkan/gypsy scene – best introduction is probably gypsy beats and balkan bangers compiled by felix from basement jaxx – its kinda interesting
FWIW, they had Gotan on the mix tape at a coffee place in Chiang Mai yesterday…