It happened on this year's Belgrade Tango Encuentro. Dark-Oh played a version of Adiós corazón I have not heard before, with a very unusual pattern played by the piano and pizzicato violin at the beginning and repeating it throughout the song. It was mesmerizing.
I've written about new music that inspires me, and recently I've wondered if I put money where my mouth is. To that end, I have done a quick statistical analysis of my playlist from the first half of 2019. Here is what I found.
I wrote a while back how I like the non-serious, slightly drunk side of tango - as if danced in a smoky pub. If I ever get a chance to DJ in such environment, I'll play some Tango Esquinas there. Today, I'm reviewing their newest album, Orchestra Esquinas, from 2018.
I think Biagi is a good gateway drug to the 1950s. If I were to nudge a recalcitrant "traditionalist" towards newer music, I could very well start with this album.
In the context of tango DJing, harmonic mixing is using your knowledge of keys to create harmonic contrast between two adjacent songs within a tanda.
Romantica Milonguera remade four Beatles songs in a tango fashion.
I played Saturday night at a festival near Trondheim, Norway, in a place called Hell.
It takes two to tango but at least three to make tango, and possibly four to create a rich enough sound space for tango to flourish. Quarteto Sol Tango manage that beautifully. Their new release "Sin palabras" has been out since early January.
There was a show at this instance of the regular Monday milonga, and as a result, more people than usual showed up. Despite my original intent, no 1960's music made it into my set. I alternated primarily between 1940s, 1950s and 2010s.
Do you ever meet a song that you just can't get out of your head afterwards? I bet you do. As a DJ, I try to keep my musical relationships casual and uncommitted. Despite my best efforts however, some songs do occasionally drill deep into my memory circuits and keep flooding my consciousness for days on end.