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I have written a short review before. The second installment of this series now just arrived in my mailbox some weeks ago and I have been playing it on my iPod since then. At first I was quite surprised how different yet similar the albums are… but more on that later. In fact I have listened to the songs so often now I can hardly remember if they are from Volume 1 or 2 without checking the track listings

The first track (which is a remix of the last track of the album) “Abasto Sunset” by G-Spliff is a dark, melancholic instrumental song, that does introduce the album, but does not foreshadow its mood at all. But in its own way this short intro is very intriguing, very deep and very fascinating, if it were just longer. The second version of this track, namely the “original” version of “Abasto Sunset” is far less powerful. Nevertheless it leaves you with some sort of an aftertaste wanting you to start the album all over again.

The second track (Tango Tripping Project - El Exilio del Tango) reminds me very much more of the various TangoFusion / Electronic Tango CDs that were out in the first wave of new tango music 1-2 years ago. It is then where you realize this album will definitely follow in Volume 1’s footsteps. And I could just go on praising almost every single track on the compilation. The tracks meld into each other as if they were meant to be on that compilation. Definitely an album that has a permanent place in my iPod.

But then I would prefer you to go out and listen to it yourself.

A side note for tango dancers: this album is very much danceable, although it is a lot slower than Volume 1 - but I think you might actually prefer Vol. 2 for dancing.

It arrived yesterday. I listened to it for at least 5 times since then and still can’t get enough. You may have read my last post about its upcoming release - I had checked the website and was not so much impressed with the sound samples. I was expecting a great successor to La revancha del Tango and this CD is not really it - but wait. What is this CD not? It is not a CD completely created by Gotan, it is not a copy or remake of the “old” Revancha, there are not just new cool club-tangos… What IS this CD then? Why do I like it so much? How is it different? When you get the CD and hold it in your hands you feel that it is different. The case (no plastic) is made out of paper with a glossy shine on it - it feels quite different to the matte, rough surface of Revancha. The design of the cover can be compared to the hotel costes series, you see a couple in the tango embrace, but no faces. The title of the Cd is given as “A Gotan Project DJ set”, and this silently introduces you to the idea, that this CD is definitely something different than just another Gotan CD. Looking inside you find a booklet, and two CDs, and you finally begin to understand, that the title “Inspiracion Espiracion” describes the two CDs, one named “Inspiracion”, the other named “Espiracion”. Take the CD and throw it into your CD player, hit “play” and then look at the track listing. “La Cumparsita“, a track that Astor Piazzolla once dismissed into the trash bin of tango music. But you start listening and you don’t hear La Cumparsita but a spoken intro by Bandoneonist Ceruti - and after twenty seconds you feel yourself fading into Piazzolla’s “Cité Tango” - a perfect transition into a perfect tango. If you still have wandering thoughts you can open the booklet and start reading what Philippe Cohen Solal (the mastermind behind remixing, selecting and producing the CD - and only part of GoTan) has to say about the history of each track. By now the next track has appeared in your ears, “Round About Midnight”, Gotan’s take at Chet Baker (this song has been floating around the net for a while now and I believe it has been played at Gotan’s live performances) which is amazing - beautiful for listening, but even more so for dancing… and it lasts a good 7 minutes sou you can really enjoy it. Next track, Confianzas has more rhythm to it, its sound a bit closer to Gotan’s previous tracks, although much more relaxed and less club like. If you own the double CD version of La Revancha you already know the Kruder remix of Triptico, and in fact there is a sibling to it: Gotan remixed a Kruder Track called “The Man” (by Kruder’s Peace Orchestra); the Kruder remix can be found a bit later on the CD. Back to The man, it has that Gotan feeling to it that you could expect from all other remixes Gotan has done (remember “Whatever Lola wants” from Verve Remixed ?) which we love and expect from them. And in order to make things interesting the next track is completely off the tango base: “Percusion” by Domingo Cura; if I read the booklet correctly it does have Argentinean roots in chacacera… and it fades smoothly into another remix, this time a gotan song (la del ruso from Revancha) remixed by Calexico - its sound somewhere between gotan and Mexico western country - definitely a song that drives me to dance. Suppressing my need for dancing I glance at the next track’s title “El Capitalism Foreano” I am thrown back some years, again to La Revancha, until I realize it is a remix by Antipop Consortium, with a touch of hip hop (and somehow I have heard it before - “our freedom we need it, don’t take it for granted”). And to make the contrasts complete the following track is Anibal Troilo’s “Tres Y Dos”, just a classic tango recording and somehow odd in this mix, although it is, in itself, a beautiful song. But you can almost sense that you are now completely in Gotan Wonderland, stumbling from one world into a completely new one when the next track comes - this time in the shape of “M.A.T.H.”, Al-Shid’s fusion between HipHop and Tango, followed by Peter Kruder’s remix of Triptico (with interesting radio excerpts). Moving to techno-fusion-wonderland during Pepe Bradock’s remix of Santa Maria. Amazed, slightly worn out from not dancing (yet) to the CD you put the CD back into the glossy sleeve, take out CD “Espiracion” and throw it into your iBook - realizing there is only one track to listen to and a surprise. The song is a jewel of old times, one that was not ready for La Revancha, but got finished and polished during the last years - and it is a song that definitely fits La Revancha, even more so than the DJ set Inspiracion. The surprise comes in form of a video by Gotan’s personal video artist featuring songs from the album, not being a music video but something quite more than that. Finished with the video you realize you need to listen to it all again, again again and again and you feel your need to start dancing….