Daniel Neilson is a freelance writer and photographer, and lived in Buenos Aires for five years eating too much meat, going hoarse at football games and thoroughly failing to learn a step of tango. He edited Time Out’s Buenos Aires guidebook and has contributed words and photos to a variety of publications about Argentina for Four Four Two, The Wire, CNN Traveller, Real Travel, Adventure Travel and the Observer among others. He now spends his days drinking imported mate and planning his return journey.
Ten years ago, even before I was such a beer snob, when a friend and I were planning parties, we would put “NB” on the invitations: No Brahma. OK, maybe I was a beer snob then, but the Brazilian beer, a whole 20 centavos cheaper than Quilmes, wasn’t just bland. It was offensively bland. Like Kenny G…
You will have heard Gustavo Santaolalla’s music. He may not be a household name everywhere, but his prodigious talent – some have argued genius – has been one of Argentina’s greatest musical exports. Where to begin? Well, there was an Oscar for Ang Lee’s gay cowboy epic Brokeback Mountain soundtrack. Oh, and there was another one the following year for…
Nothing quite prepares you for Gaby Kerpel. In his benchmark album, Carnabailito, he took the sounds, mood and, most importantly, the vibe (or onda as they would say in Argentina) of this stunning part of the country and mixed it, mashed it, messed it until it was, if not quite unrecognisable, then certainly genre defying.
Electronica has always found a home in Buenos Aires. It has also provided Argentina with some of its biggest breakout acts – most notably the Gotan Project and Gustavo Sanatolla’s project Bajofondo Tango Club. Then, in the post-superclub space came The Manta Raya. And since their genesis in 2000, with the current bands making the same sort of New Rave noises (M83, Foals, Hot Chip et al), they have found their groove again and are partying as hard ever. Read on to find out all about this anarchic Argentinian electronica outfit.
Don’t let the following words put you off: Juana Molina is an actress turned musician. Yet her ambient bedroom mixes remain warm sounding, luscious even, and ruefully manage to skip over the ‘that’s interesting’ which experimental music often elicits, to be gorgeous cross over music, soundtracking dinner parties in Buenos Aires and across the world.
We love Buenos Aires: its frenetic lifestyle that oozes sex appeal, charm and culture. But living there for years, there’s a limit. And that’s when, through whispers, rumours and idle gossip, you find out that there are places to unwind. Some obvious, some a little bizarre and some hidden.
Considering that barely a ball has been kicked in Argentina in the last couple of weeks, it’s been a tumultuous time for the Argentinian football. Firstly the sacking of the manager of the national team after the lackluster showing at the Copa America in the homeland, the Tevez and Aguero saga at Manchester City and – oh yes – the biggest shake up of the Argentinian league game for, well, ever, to a system so revolutionary that no team will ever have to be relegated again.
Two games into the 2011 Copa América, and things aren’t looking good for the host country. An astonishing one-one draw with Bolivia (Bolivia!) was followed by a nil-nil result against Colombia (Colombia!). Eek.
There comes a time in everyone’s visit to Buenos Aires where they would turn to me and say: “Daniel, you basically live in New York/Paris/Barcelona/Madrid”. It is at this point that I would buy them a subte coin, descend down to the depths of the blue line and take them to Retiro.
June and July are ripe months for cultural and sporting events in Argentina. The weather begins to get a bit chilly, and thoughts of museums, galleries and cultural events take over from beaches, barbecues and mate in the park.
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