Mike Patton's Ipecac label must be feared by record store employees nationwide. How do you file Vincent and Mr. Green? Where do you put Flat Earth Society? (Amoeba) has it in rock, but that can't be right.) Okay, Dalek definitely goes in hip-hop. Or is it experimental?
In that grand tradition, The Tango Saloon collides worlds and shakes genres to their foundations. The fifteen-piece ensemble from Australia combines a love for underground music and performance with tango that tears it all apart in a manner reminiscent -- in spirit if not in sound -- of Matthew Herbert's wildly successful big-band experiment. Though this record is not quite as successful, the other influences it pulls in, ranging from straight-ahead jazz to various stages of Ennio Morricone's career, make it a wild ride through the more suave areas of instrumental music.
The Tango Saloon is an odd record, one that doesn't quite sound like anything else, and for people who like their music on the fringes of conventional divides, it's a record well worth picking up.
The Tango Saloon on Southern Records' Web site
The Tango Saloon on Ipecac Records' Web site
