by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

The fusion of au courant club beats and classic Argentinian tango tangents is, right now, the exclusive domain of the Parisian act Gotan Project. The concept may make some cringe, but the practical results have struck a nerve, which is why you hear their stuff spilling out of chic restos and boutiques across town. The trick is, their self-titled debut album is more than simply tango meets beats - each song is unique, exploring the different emotional possibilities of tango, the lust, anger, humour and melancholy. Keyboardist Philippe Cohen Solal charted the history of tango, and Gotan Project's place in it, for the Mirror.

Mirror: Many people understand tango as a very elegant, upper-class music, but the truth is that its origins are rather dark and dirty.

Philippe Cohen Solal: It's miles away from the idea we have in Europe and America. It was created by the African community in Argentina, in the 19th century. It was very percussive - it's said that the word ‘tango' comes from tambor, the drum in an African dialect. But the thing we know is that the tango was the name of the dancehall where it started. In the beginning it was very drummy, then it started to mix with other instruments and musical styles, because of the immigration from Europe. Each wave of immigrants brought its own - the bandoleon came from Germany, the violin from the Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia, the guitar from Spain.

M: Also, these dancehalls were the last place the high society we associate with tango would want to find themselves.

PCS: It was absolutely hated by high society at the beginning! It was the music of the bad boys from the Buenos Aires bordellos and harbours. Even the dance was sometimes danced by two men, because there weren't very many women. Later it went to Paris and became very popular there. It came back to Argentina, after all this success, with some glamour and some chic. At that point, it was accepted by the high society in Buenos Aires, only because it was popular in Paris.

M: I would compare tango to American blues and Greek rembetika - what happened with those styles, and I think to tango also, was that as they became more respectable, they also experienced a certain creative paralysis.

PCS: Yes, there was a golden age in the '30s and '40s. But Astor Piazzolla was the first, in the '50s, to make a sort of anti-establishment tango. I read an interview with him in the '80s where he compared his revolution in tango with the punk revolution in pop from the U.K. He was hated by the tango establishment. He was beaten up in the street, somebody also came with a gun and said, "Don't touch tango!"

M: So Argentinians treat tango like Brazilians treat soccer.

PCS: Yeah, maybe! Of course, now everyone says that Piazzolla was a genius, like George Gershwin for jazz. The problem with tango, also, was that they mostly did covers, standards from the '20s, '30s and '40s. Now, everyone does covers of Piazzolla! That's why, maybe, we had such a good response in Argentina. Many people there, even music journalists, said that nothing happened between Piazzolla and the Gotan Project. It's great to have a breath of fresh air in tango. We didn't expect that. In Paris, there are of course these tango ayatollahs who hate us, but at the same time we've had support from the tango scene all over the world - including Argentina.

With Cinematic Orchestra at Metropolis
on Saturday, July 5, 9pm, $37.50

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