Líquido

Opening with ‘Triunfal’, a typically lyrical, mood-swinging Astor Piazzolla number, this UK-based quintet set out the stall of their second album, a follow-up to 2015's Encuentro. Whether playing compositions by celebrated Argentinian tangueros Diego Schissi and Ramiro Gallo or by their own Ricardo Gosalbo (pianist), the Deco Ensemble serve up a sophisticated, cerebral, slickly arranged concert tango – not so much for the sweat-scented dance salon as for the raised stage and an audience of clappers and foot-tappers. Argentinians like to speak disparagingly of ‘tango for export’ and, in a sense, this is music oriented towards foreigners and non-aficionados (ie those who want a light, recognisably ‘classical’ way into tango). Because Piazzolla is such an influence on this tradition, there's a familiarity to the astringency, the staccato, and the virtuosic showiness as each instrumentalist steps forward, jazz-style, to pull of his or her turn.

The liquidity alluded to in the title captures the cool manner in which the musicians gel and harmonise, riff and respond, but the sound itself is dominated by percussive pulsation and a kind of studied clamour. On Schissi's ‘Líquido 3’ they get all experimental and ambient. Ten, on Gallo's ‘Las Malenas’ – the best of the 12 tracks – the skittish spirit of the milonga is permitted in, and a different kind of fluidity – instinctive, gleeful – with it. The album wraps up with three well-executed back-to-back Piazzolla pieces, the so-called Diablo trilogy. We end as we began. A homage, with knobs on.