All Stories (RSS)
Fedrico Aubele - Gran Hotel Buenos Aires (esl Music)
Love Gotan Project? Dying hear something new from them? Well, if you just can't wait however long it will be before they release something new, may I suggest picking up a copy of "Gran Hotel Buenos Aires"?Playing all the instruments himself, and soaking up diverse influences from his native Argentina, in particular avant garde tango composer Astor Piazzolla, together with Mozart, the Ramones and Wes Montgomery, Federico Aubele has produced a beautiful album..
In true fairy tale fashion, Aubele sent a demo to the offices of Eighteenth Street Lounge Music after hearing "Focus on Sight" by Thievery Corporation. Following e-mails being exchanged and further demos sent North to Washington DC, Rob Garza and Eric Hilton were suitably impressed, who gave him a contract and agreed to do the production credits.
Whilst the Gotan Project are never far from your ears whilst listening to "Gran Hotel..." the album features much more playing of Aubele's favourite instrument, the guitar,. In addition, many of the tracks have moulded and fingered by Thievery Corporation more than a smattering of Jamaican dub. I just can't help liking the internationalism involved, a nice line running up the east side of the great American continent taking in Argentina, Jamaica and Washington DC pulsating with dubby tango - nice!.
Like La Revenga del Tango, no songs are sung in English and there are plenty of Spanish vocal samples and snippets. Starting with only a guitar and his records Aubele gradually constructed the tracks by playing everything, all without MIDI dabbling, and then he roped in female singers, all friends from Buenos Aires, to turn the tracks into proper songs.
To simply say that Federico Aubele has copied Gotan Project's lilting, melodic sound would do him a grave injustice. Unfortunately though I think that the comparison is just too obvious to avoid, and I have ended up feeling a bit sorry for Federico, as he will be seen as being a copyist.
That aside, "Gran Hotel Buenos Aires" is an amazing first album from a young and obviously very talented bloke. Gotan Project better watch out as they now have a slick and very cool young pretender just waiting in the wings!
3.75 out of 5
Soyo
Fedrico Aubele's "Gran Hotel Buenos Aires" is out on August 2nd on Eighteenth Street Lounge.
Written: 26th Jul, 04
Read: 2772 times
