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Yick! BALLROOM tango!

Bryan Ford | Cambridge, MA USA | 04/17/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"From the title, extensive song list, and the fact that this album is imported, I was expecting a nice compilation of classic tango recordings from Argentina. Was I wrong! It turns out this album is actually from Portugal, not Argentina, and consists of modern orchestral arrangements of traditional tangos. I don't have anything against contemporary arrangements of tango classics; in fact the renditions by modern groups such as Color Tango, Trio Pantango, and the New York Tango Trio are among my favorites. This particular collection, however, has a rather mysterious Jekyll and Hyde character to it. When I inserted CD 1 and played the first few songs, I was instantly nauseated to hear some of the most cheesy ballroom-style "tango" I've ever had the misfortune of encountering - just flat melodies played against a "dum dum dum dum-pa dum" beat marching band-style, devoid of any identifiable artistic qualities. Needless to say I was disappointed. But later, after deciding to give the album a second chance and listen to a few more of the songs, I discovered that only about a third of them are done in that hideous style. Many of the others have a completely different, more tasteful and authentic character - as if done by an entirely different music group - are actually listenable and even danceable. Most of the songs are instrumental, but a number of them are vocal, and the male singer is good and has rich, beautiful voice. So although I'm not likely to play the CDs themselves much because of the nauseating trash mixed in with the good stuff, the collection is fairely extensive for the price and makes great mp3 fodder."