Anda

Talent is sometimes about spotting an opening. After serving as saxophonist for Argentinian 70s legend Charly García and 80s new wavers Los Abuelos de la Nada, Daniel Melingo turned to tango to launch his solo career. His 1998 debut Tangos Bajos, offered a brief blast of dark-hued, slang-peppered songs that channelled Lou Reed, Roberto Goyeneche and dub reggae to smuggle kids raised on rock nacional into the tangopolis. His latest offering Anda is also brief artfully lugubrious, but the music has become more multi-layered and multivalent. Tango lingers in melodies penned by Osvaldo Pugliese and Edmundo Rivero and as a sort of mood-shadow, but the sequence of ten songs is more akin to a soundtrack for a gothic cabaret act. Think Pink Martini meets Tom Waits. Melingo has always been about style as well as substance (a cool cover of Serge Gainsbourg's ‘Intoxicated Man’ and another of Erik Satie's ‘Gnossienne’ hint at two fashionable role models), and his voice is pleasingly gravelly. But it is also utterly bereft of range or resonance. Anda promises much, but is ultimately a somewhat slender offering, and lacks the cutting edge of Tangos Bajos. Melingo's key gift is in bringing together talented musicians and providing tango with a new, experimental space.