Daniel Melingo


Daniel Melingo began his music career on the clarinet at a music school in Buenos Aires. He grew up in a family of classic tango aficionados. But, from the start, his rebellious nature attracted him to rock music and a tango that drew inspiration from the gutter and ghettos of the capital. Melingo studied musicology and composition at university, until the suffocating atmosphere of the Argentinian dictatorship forced him to hit the road. The 21-year-old settled down in Brazil and became involved in the Agua group headed by Milton Nascimento.

In 1982, he returned to his troubled nation and plunged into the underground rock scene that fed off the tensions of a society torn by repression and war. Melingo’s voice fed into the contestation of bands like Los Twist and Los Abuelos de la Nada. He found a similar energy in Madrid when, in the mid-Eighties he settled in the Spanish capital and joined the punk band Torredos Muertos. They recorded Lions in Love, which melded funk, reggae, Latino and punk sounds.

Back in Buenos Aires in the 90s, Melingo turned to a roughened up version of tango drenched in the ghetto slang from Buenos Aires, called “lunfardo”. His new self-imposed mission was to resuscitate a popular tango that honours its working-class roots. “As he breathes in the air of Buenos Aires,” writes Latin music specialist Remy Kolpa Kopoul, “he conjures up a gallery of characters on who life has taken its toll in a series of off-the-wall snapshots: the pickpocket on the bus, the weeping prostitute, the tramp working his way through the rubbish bins, the day worker who dances the night away, the kid dying of loneliness, the Argentinean of Montmartre....and, of course – tango has always had a soft spot for losers – the guy who’s been abandoned.” Melingo alternated music with a career as a television presenter, and found time to record several albums, including Tango Bajos (1998) and and Ufa (2003).

A year later, Melingo joined forces with Eduardo Makarof and his label Mañana. Makarof is the Argentinean component of the trio that makes up the Gotan Project. The two Argentines recorded Santa Milonga, an album of selected songs from the previous five years of Melingo output. In 2007, they released Maldito Tango, or “cursed tango”. Classic poets are summoned in this groundbreaking album that tries to reflect the urban decay and defiance that dominates Buenos Aires in the 21st century. Maldito Tango has been constructed, broken apart and constructed once again over six months,” enthuses RKK. “This is a flamboyant and rare piece of work that breaks the rules of tango by stirring up the mix, beating time with haunting images that border on new wave, and jamming in a psyched-out litany.” Apt lyricism from a connoisseur who has been following the incandescent career of one of Latin America’s most iconoclastic artists. So will we.

Daniel Brown