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Lunático

Several of my musical discoveries of the '00s were sparked by listening to the Now Hear This! promotional CDs affixed to The Word magazine. The disc that came with the May 2006 issue kicked off with the track 'Diferente' by The Gotan Project, which I enjoyed well enough to place an Amazon order for the trio's album Lunático. I must have clicked carelessly, as I was taken by surprise when a large, flat, square parcel arrived the following week. I'd meant to order it on CD, but instead had procured a 2-LP vinyl copy.

That year happened to be when vinyl sales were at their nadir, and, although I had by then acquired a small collection of second-hand LPs, I'd no intention of buying new records, imagining them to be virtually a thing of the past (outside of club culture). Lunático is about an hour long - as was commonplace for albums then - an inconvenient duration for vinyl, so it had been split into four roughly quarter-hour-long sides, necessitating annoyingly frequent trips to one's gramophone to turn over or change the discs.

The music is good though - the Discogs listing for the album characterises it as "Trip Hop, Downtempo, Tango". The Gotan Project were (and perhaps still are) an international outfit based in Paris comprising Argentinian guitarist Eduardo Makaroff, French producer/DJ Philippe Cohen and Swiss producer Christoph H. Müller, along with assorted guests. Lunático was mostly recorded in Paris and Buenos Aires, with one track - the opener, 'Amor Porteño' - recorded in Tucson with Calexico as the backing band. Elsewhere, electronic & acoustic sounds, singing & spoken word are combined into a heady musical cocktail.

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