Track Listing

1. Amor Porteno (featuring Calexico)
2. Notas (featuringJuan Carlos Cacares)
3. Diferente
4. Celos
5. Lunatico
6. Mi Confesion (featuring Koxmoz)
7. Tango Cancion
8. La Viguela
9. Criminal
10. Arrabal
11. Domingo (featuring Jimi Santos)
12. Paris, Texas

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22647 in Music
• Released on: 2006-04-11
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Not wanting to replicate what their debut, "La Revancha Del Tango", had achieved musically, the group has a decidedly stronger emphasis on the organic roots of tango on "Lunatico" and utilized a host of local musicians from Buenos Aires; a complete string section, two emcees, a trombonist, and Argentine piano legend and long time Gotan collaborator Gustavo Beytelmann. The result is their most accomplished work yet. "The beats are sparse and liquid, and the transition from Buenos Aires bordello to European dance floor is seamless" - Rolling Stone. "A jiggy melange of tango with a dab of dub" - Entertainment Weekly. "...an intriguing blend of traditional, passionate tango with cool, contemporary electronica" - LA Times.

Amazon.com
The Gotan Project literally took the world by storm in 2003 with its million-selling La Revancha Del Tango. Skillfully mixing the heated passion of tango with the cool insistent beats of dance music, the group kept the best of both genres as it offered up an unheralded fusion. This time around, the production team delves further into the tradition, cutting down on the dub production filigree and overarching electronic programming--now sexy grooves often come on the back of organic beats and an unprocessed sound captured during live studio sessions in Buenos Aires. This new focus is furthered with conventional bandoneon soloing as well as acoustic piano and string section backing. Nonetheless, kids craving to cut a rug will dig "Diferente" and "Notas," while the robust "Amor Porteno" (featuring Calexico) is the group's most muscular tune to date. More skilled than the debut, Lunatico is no sophomore slump, though hardcore house music fans may want to wait for remixes. --Tad Hendrickson

Customer Reviews

Gotan Project's At Its Best
Fundamentally, a return to Revancha del Tango, yet not quite. Lunatico moves forward like a big city-New York or Buenos Aires-exploring new boundaries but remaining true to its cadences and beats.

Even the Rap in "Mi Confesion" seems fitting, faithful in a way to the melancholy of Tango, also particularly present in "Tango Cancion" and the gorgeous "Celos."

Of all the good and not so good Electro-Tango that has come out in recent years, even Supervielle, Federico Auberle or Bajo Fondo, Gotan Project's remains the most substantial work being done today in "renewing" Tango once more.

The writing is inspired, and Gustavo Beytelman through his piano-and arranging and conducting of all strings-is specially stunning. Precise and economic in his solos but not without his tender side. Buenos Aires music at its best.

Another perfect move has been choosing Cristina Villalongo to lend her voice, never dramatic yet bringing precise nuance and character through her singing.

Other tracks to distinguish are "Amor Porteno," a collaboration with the band Calexico, as well as the Electronica take on "La Viguela" and Ry Cooder's "Paris, Texas" transformed into longings right out of Argentina's folklore.

All in all, a tremendous return to form and a whole new expanse of sounds and evocative possibilities for the New Tango.

Adventurous.
Despite being indebted to the stroppy sound of tango, Gotan Project's first album, "La Revancha del Tango" (Revenge of the Tango), had no problem making friends. It cropped up on the last episode of 'Sex and the City' and in an advert for UPS and sold more than 1m copies. If that ubiquity came at a price, perhaps it was passion. In a hybrid of chill-out electronics and tango, something had to give.
"Lunatico" is a good follow-up, in that it pushes a more organic line, with live drumming and percussion.
"Almor Porteño" is one of the highlights of the acoustic approach: Calexico's John Convertino is so lazy and sultry on drums, it's a miracle he makes it to the end of the song on the same day as the others. And the bandoneon and guitars melt together so effectively, you wonder whether to run out and get a cloth.
"Domingo" dances well between old and new musics, but elsewhere the disc can feel like a dream about tango.
Ping-pong delays carry sounds up to the sky; the strings dance around in a big nightie of reverb; voices are filtered to sound like gramophones.
It is grainy and dubby at times (Tango Cancion), but often these effects are like an airbag. It would be nice to hear the scrape of resin on a violin bow up close, or the sudden gasp of the bandoneon - tango's musical stabs to the heart.
But that's not so easy to chill to.

Fantastic Music
I was so happy that a friend turned me on to Gotan Project a few months before the holidays. I ended up giving Lunatico to several friends and colleagues as gifts for Christmas. They all absolutely love Gotan Project. A really uplifting, energizing and sexy CD!