Gotan Project: Live (Shock)

To be honest I was never that enamoured with the little that I heard of this tango-cum-triphop outfit who seemed to command airtime at dinner parties and restaurants about five years back. (Probably hair salons too, but I never go to them)

They seemed like designer wallpaper to me and I've also never got the whole "romance of the tango" thing which many got swept up in. I understand it, I just don't do it.

So a live double album . . . ?

Well, I guess I should have given them more of a chance because I do like the innovative bandoneon work of the late Astor Piazzola and while these people don't even approach that kind of experimentation and degree of difficulty, there is something very winning about the slippery sound of bandoneon in the hands of Gotan Project's Victor Villena and Juanjo Mosalini.

I suppose if you have their previous albums this is probably surplus to your requirements (dunno, maybe here they do very different versions of the album material) and certainly after this much Gotan I don't feel like I need any more.

But given I am going to Buenos Aires soon I should really brush up on the mood and learn to whistle a few Gotan riffs.

Gotan Project, double live set: out there if you want it.