I don't generally review CDs here on Amazon, because I think that musical taste is essentially an individual matter. However, this CD demands that I make an exception. It bowled me over when I first heard it (fittingly enough, in Buenos Aires), and continues to do so - I've been buying copies compulsively for friends, who are similarly taken with it.

Gotan Project, a French group (with several collaborators, many from Buenos Aires, on this CD) continue to be among the more interesting contributors to the genre of 'electrotango'. I find "Lunatico" even better than their earlier ""La revancha del tango". High points are "Amor Porteno", "Arrabal", Ry Cooder's instrumental track "Paris, Texas", and the insane tango rap "Mi Cancion" (I would listen to it every night in Buenos Aires, monitoring my Spanish progress by how far I could follow before getting lost).

This is joyful music that weaves in the bittersweet heart of tango while steering clear its sentimental excesses.

Beg, borrow, buy or steal this CD. You won't be sorry!

I've heard Gotan Project at my friend's house. And loved it suddenly.
If you like Tango and modern music formats and jazz, then this is the album for you...
Interesting is, in almost every mood you can love the songs in this album. No matter you are sad, bored, happy, cheerful, angry songs will touch to your soul.
La Revancha del Tango, another album from Gotan Project is also advisable strongly. Nice listenings :)

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.

The Paris-based Gotan Project is trio Philippe Cohen Solal (France), Eduardo Makaroff (Argentina), and Christoph H. Müller (Switzerland). Named after tango master Carlos Gardel's racehorse, Lunático, and recorded in both Buenos Aires and Paris, the band's intoxicating 2006 tango album is infused with intriguing electronica samples, beats, and euro dance grooves. Adding to the global grooves, the album also features collaborations with both Argentine Gustavo Beytelmann on piano and the Tucson, Arizona band, Calexico. Tracks from this highly-recommended album include:

1. Amor Porteno (featuring Calexico)
2. Notas (featuring Juan 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

G. Merritt

I've always thought that, late on the night the world ends, we'll be in a dark milonga watching the dancers dance and listening to the weary yet romantic sound of the tango. On that night, they'll definitely be playing some cuts from this album and I think that the last song of the night, before existence simply ceases, will be Gotan Project's version of Ry Cooder's "Paris, Texas" (from the Wim Wenders movie).

After loving "La Revancha del Tango," but getting a little tired of it over the years, I expected to be disappointed by "Lunatico." It's just the opposite. I just listen to it more and more. If you like the tango sound and you like to listen to artists explore new space with it, this album is definitely for you.