Tag: Music

Gaby Kerpel Beats to a Different Drum

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.

December 20th, 2011

It’s All About The Manta Raya

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.

November 15th, 2011

Argentinian Music: A Biography of Juana Molina

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.

October 19th, 2011

Hot Fest Buenos Aires: An Argentine Music Festival

Argentine music festivals are all about moshing (they bounce insanely to everything), bad lip-syncing (some very creative mouth movements going on), illogical wristband-voucher-beer-buying methods (seriously, don’t ask) and public displays of affection (aka rampant snogging). Lisa Goldapple reports from Buenos Aires HotFest 2010.

December 20th, 2010

The Best Argentine Music Venues in Buenos Aires

Walk down Buenos Aires’s central shopping street, Avenida Florida, and you’d be forgiven for presuming that Argentine music tastes encompass just one genre: tango. So where should you be heading to catch the city’s hottest bands? Here’s a rundown offering something for all tastes.

October 22nd, 2010

Folklorico – Traditional Argentine Music

Mercedes Sosa

If tango is the soundtrack of Buenos Aires, then it is traditional folklórico that scores the rest of Argentina. And where the countryside collides with the city is at wine-sloshing musical shindigs called peñas. Peñas in Buenos Aires attract everyone from home-sick northerners from Salta and Jujuy, to city folk who don’t want to get their feet dirty, to students looking for a bit of culture mixed with a lot of fun. Each peña has a slightly different musical angle. The term folklórico is a catch-all term for a lot of traditional music…

May 7th, 2010

Salta Beats to a Different Drum in Argentina’s Northwest

Iglesia y Convento San Francisco Salta Argentina

Salta beats to a different drum, figuratively and literally. Gone is the incessant Tango of Buenos Aires, and gone are the frenetic rhythms of cumbia. In the dramatic north-western province of Salta, it is the resonant thud of a bombo legüero, the chiming mandolin-like charango and guitar that provide the soundtrack…

April 14th, 2010

The Lure of Tango in Argentina

They say that tango is the very expression of the Argentine soul. Certainly its roots are entwined with those of modern-day Argentina as the country emerged into a nation of immigrants in the late 19th century. It was a time of tremendous change especially in the port of Buenos Aires (B.A) which was swamped with Europeans seeking a new life in the New World. Soon the influx of Italians alone outnumbered the resident porteños – citizens of B.A, who were mainly descended from Spanish colonists and African slaves…

March 12th, 2010