Dance, DJing, History, VJing

What is neotango?

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»In the matter of tango it is always very precarius to express an opinion. The risk to claim something fallacious about the tango or to offend living or dead historical persons of the genre is immense. It´s no valid question whether Carlos Gardel is an Argentinian or Uruguayan by birth - in fact it seems natural to assume that by Gotan Project the fourth tango revolution has taken place.«

What is neotango? And if so how many? A polemic to the relation of neotango and Retro Tango »In the matter of tango it is always very precarius to express an opinion. The risk to claim something fallacious about the tango or to offend living or dead historical persons of the genre is immense. It´s no valid question whether Carlos Gardel is an Argentinian or Uruguayan by birth - in fact it seems natural to assume that by Gotan Project the fourth tango revolution has taken place.« Philippe Cohen Solal, Gotan Project The guess that Diego Siegelwachs supposed in his article of 2007 »GOTAN PROJECT and the fourth tango revolution« unmistakable has been proved to be true.(cf. http://www.alolatino.de) »La Revancha del Tango« of Gotan Project in 2001 marks not necessarily historically, but stylistically the birth of the neotango, to a trendy, danceable style mix of the tango with electronic beats and sounds. The neotango has lined up to burst open the congealed musical, dance-like,

social and communicative conventions of the tango of the 80th and 90th. Comparable to the formation of the jazz it melts the tango with impulses of the broad range of the contemporary youth culture, revitalises itself and regains its basic liveliness, power of innovation and improvisation.In this process it meets with disapproval by the exponents of the soi-disant »Tango Argentino « which refers his identity to the classicistic zenith of the Tango Ríoplatense, to the Tango d`Oro of the 40th. As this hegemonic, retrogressive claim demands exclusively all the form vocabulary of the tango - from dance through fashion to music - this position can be labeled as Retro Tango. »The concept denotes a cultural phenomenon which produces pieces of art or cultural achievements in general neither based on contemporary style codes nor as their creative advancements or as original new creations, but by recourse to concepts or styles of past periods.«(cf. http://de.wikipedia.org) The Retro Tango assimilated to a curious position…

History

Invented Tradition

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»An invented tradition is realized by choosing a certain point in the past, repeating language, gestures and objects so often until you can no longer imagine that it was any different.«

by Volker Marschhausen (German version below) »An invented tradition is realized by choosing a certain point in the past, repeating language, gestures and objects so often until you can no longer imagine that it was any different.«1 Traditional Tango and Epoca de Oro In the everyday experience of many tango dancers, the »traditional« milonga is a rather harmless dance event full of glamour and crackling exoticism. On closer inspection, however, the perception of the glittering surface gives way to a disturbing ambivalence of intimacy and anonymity, inclusion and exclusion, passion and commerce. A few glimpses into the history of tango are enough to reveal the »traditional« tango as an emperor without clothes, as an »invented tradition« with tabooed dark sides. The so-called Epoca de Oro forms the common historical reference point of the Traditional Tango and its codes, even if its temporal definition mostly follows subjective standards (Marta Savigliano: 1918 – 1935, Donald S. Castro: 1917 – 1943, Michael Lavocah:

1935 – 1945, Christian Tobler: 1938 – 1947). Either one believes »that the essence of the tango lies in its spirit of rebellion and spontaneity of the 1920s« 2 or that »the 1940s and 1950s represented a peak in terms of orchestral complexity.« 3 Even determined advocates of the traditional tango must soberly state: »It seems obvious that the »traditional tango« cannot exist at all; the views of music and dance have been too different in the course of historical development«. 4 The hierarchical staging of the classical tango as a golden celestial throne thus exposes itself as a classical »invented tradition«. Instead of this horizontally layered epochal picture, it is much more plausible to start from parallel, diachronic lines of development of the tango. Through this view, tango acquires a deep historical dimension with radical, even violent leaps, ranging from Tango Criolo to contemporary Tango Nuevo and NeoTango. Tango Codes & Rituals Tango codes are also part of the…

DJing, History

Tango DNA and NeoTango

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Mainstream NeoTango events established an understanding of their music, that extended their genre boundaries far beyond the horizon. Everything is somehow ‘Neo’. This indefinable melange is referred to as »Contemporary Music« and forms the sediment of so called Neo playlists according to the subjective music preference of the DJs and DJanes.

A classification by Volker Marschhausen »When you eat a soup it does not matter from which farmer come the ingredients or where he comes from or how old is him. The main thing is that it ś tasty, for you, eating in that specific time.« Elio Astor TangoDj II, 2019    The dawn of Alternative music Mainstream NeoTango events established an understanding of their music, that extended their genre boundaries far beyond the horizon. Everything is somehow ‘Neo’. This indefinable melange is referred to as »Contemporary Music« and forms the sediment of so called Neo playlists according to the subjective music preference of the DJs and DJanes. The simplified 'Tango scheme’ of the 4/4 metric indicates the only »Tango« charistics of their songs. There are several Facebook groups (Alternative Milonga PlayList, NonTangos for Tangodancers …) where a variety of suggestions regarding their 'milonga suitability’ are widely discussed. According to this method Rossini’s William Tell Overture fits metrically exactly to a milonga,

however there’s no evidence. Coquetry with Tangometrics remains the one single musical link to the Tango dancers. In the same way the much more unwieldy Tango Nuevos, ElectroTangos and Contemporary Tangos have been also gradually marginalized and sacrificed for the sake of a more easily consumable mix. The small reference to Tango has been established by the dancers adaptability and improvisational skills. The musical grocery is thrown before their stilettos in hopes that their skills are sufficient to transform the music into dance. To achieve this, playlists were cleaned from flops and were optimised through trial and error. The result is that the baby has been thrown out with the bath water and exposes the complexity of Tango DNA - the genetic material of Tango - to a taste all over the place. »When you eat a soup it does not matter from which farmer come the ingredients or where he comes from or how old is him. The main…

History

Tango Now

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»Tradition is not to preserve the ashes but to pass on the flame« Gustav Mahler

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»Tradition is not to preserve the ashes but to pass on the flame«Gustav Mahler  Those who personally experienced the beginning of neoTANGO in 2001 know that the integration of Tango and contemporary music styles were its outstanding characteristics.I am incredibly happy that I did not only experience the long history of Neotango right in front of my eyes, but also to be involved partly in shaping it with events.  As I competely understand the result of not having experienced the origin and history of neoTANGO, let me call some developmental milestones to convey an idea of this period. First Tanguerilla 2004This is the first Tanguerilla flyer from 2004 calling the music neotango.underground. First Tanguerilla video This is my first playlist from 2003 containing 4,7% Alternative and the rest neoTANGO.Tanguerilla-Playlist.pdfNothing has changed since then 😉 First NeotangoRave 4 – 6 March 2011 ORIGINAL announcement: »DJs:electrotango / veronika fischer / augsburgnontango / tom schröder / hannovertangofusion / sonja armissen / münchenbalkantango / arlenka klas / feldkirchtrancetango

/volker marschhausen / bremenVjs: ReD Tango / berlin-france und volker marschhausen / bremen« This is the proof that from beginning of the NeotangoRave 80% of it’s DJanes played subgenre of Tango mixed with contemporary music styles. They preferred Tango DNA instead of Electro, Balkan, Fusion and Trance. Crucial change - extinction of orchestrasThe comfortable situation changed abruptly in 2012, when species extinction of most leading Neotango bands started and the musical support of DJanes ceased. The dissolution of Gotan Project in May 2012 created a domino effect on the most important NeoTango bands (NarcoTango, Gotan Project, Otros Aires) and dramatically decreasesd live concerts of others (Bajofondo, ElectrocuTango, Tango Crash, San Telmo Lounge, ETango). Birth of AlternativeThe musical scarcity of resources forced many DJanes to search for musical alternatives beyond Tango influences. Depending on personal preferences and musical influences, the entire spectrum of contemporary music styles slipped into their playlists. World, Hip Hop, TripHop, Classic Crossover, Rock, Blues, Dubstep, Ethno –…

Dance, DJing, History, VJing

A Brief History of NeoTango

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NeoTango is a complex structure of different moments of a cultural movement. It includes music, dance, visual performance, fashion and codes.

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First decade NeoTango is a complex structure of different moments of a cultural movement. It includes music, dance, visual performance, fashion and codes. Although the child had many fathers (and mothers), it is undisputable that »La Revancha del Tango« by Gotan Project in 2001 was the initial impulse of this new Tango period. »Gotan Project has done just that, causing a musical revolution: sweet, sensual, passionate«. Vogue.it Later on sustained period of growth of NeoTango bands followed, whose common feature was the fusion of Tango with contemporary music genres using classical, analog and digital instruments. Orchestras like NarcoTango, Otros Aires, Bajofondo, Tanghetto - to name but a few of the best known - generated such a suction effect in the Tango scene, as well as in the music industry overall, that soon many copycats jumped on the bandwagon with musical fast-food productions. These synthetic, hastily cobbled, low-budget productions played an essential role in discrediting NeoTango as »ElectroTango«. Well visited live

performances demonstrated the creative potential of popular NeoTango bands and their rapidly increasing number of CD productions set the standard in the first decade. Their sheer bulk surged with great force against the crusted, traditionalist Tango scene and broke small NeoTango enclaves out of their phalanx of Salon-Milongas. They sustainably changed the musical taste and the hearing sensation of their concert goers and inspired Tango dancers to establish the first Neolongas  (a portmanteau of NeoTango and Milonga) from 2006. Neotango dance floors combined  New Tango songs with the dancing repertoire of the pioneers of Tango Nuevo (Veron, Chicho, Naveira, Salas, Ladas). Their CITA 2000 festival in Buenos Aires played a key role in the Tango renewal process and extensively influenced several generations of dancers, such as DIN in Buenos Aires. Their international workshops and tours spread the typical dancing style of the Open Embrace with Saccadas, Colgadas, Voltadas and Ganchos and changed the international Tango scene very intensively and profoundly.…