BAJOFONDO Releases Presente Debut Album With Sony Masterworks

Sony Masterworks announces the release of Presente, the new album by Latin Grammy-winning band Bajofondo, available March 5, 2013. The album's title refers to what the band is at the present moment: a stirring mix of tango, milonga, folklore, rock, hip-hop, electronica, jazz, classical, and a world of sounds from the Rio de la Plata, the river that separates and unites Argentina and Uruguay. One of the most acclaimed live acts in the world, Bajofondo's Presente is also the biggest "present" (both in size and scope) the band has delivered to die-hard fans and new converts: an epic 21-track high energy tour de force that blends a multitude of traditionally dichotomous genres seamlessly.

"After playing in virtually all corners of the world, having Sony Masterworks as our new home could not be more appropriate to present the album that most closely resembles what we are as a live band," said Gustavo Santaolalla, Bajofondo's decorated founder and producer (winner of a Golden Globe, 2 Oscars, 2 Grammys, and 12 Latin Grammys). "The music that comes out of the Rio de la Plata has a distinctive accent but is universal. We could not have been in better hands."

When Bajofondo began they came out swinging -- the debut Bajofondo Tango Club album won a Latin Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental album in 2003. Then the group became a full-fledged band with the addition of Adrian Sosa (the drummer that gives BAJOFONDO's rhythm its human traction) in the follow-up Mar Dulce (2007), which featured guests like Elvis Costello, Julieta Venegas, and Nelly Furtado, among others.

Presente is Bajofondo as you've never heard it before! Unlike previous efforts that dropped energetic dance floor bombs from the get-go, the new album opens on a low-key, string-based note: it's themysterious beginning of a brand new Bajofondo trip that takes the listener to the high-octane energy of its live shows and its ingenious experimentation in the studio. The production team of Santaolalla and guitarist Juan Campodonico have once again captured the common links and individual features of the music found on both sides of the river, but this time on a decidedly international approach that turned Presente into BAJOFONDO's most ambitious album to date.

The lead single "Pide piso" is named after a rioplatense slang term literally referring to someone unpleasant who "asks for the floor" (to be knocked to the ground, that is), but it could also refer to somebody anxious to bring sparks to the dance floor. All the Bajofondo ingredients are in this song: the beat, the organic mix of modern electronica and old tango bandoneon and violins, the milonga piano, and the double entendre that flows throughout the album (another Example of this is found in the powerful "Codigo de barra" that follows the contrasting, mellow intro and comes at you like a full-frontal sonic assault; the title simultaneously refers to a simple bar code and to figures of speech only understood by tango barflies or groups of friends).

"Olvidate" ("Forget it") illustrates Bajofondo's unique ability to blend sophistication with more mundane, popular cultural manifestations. It starts with a pulsating beat where disco meets bandoneon and then, when least expected, Bajofondo turns into a chorus taken straight out of an Argentine football stadium. The tongue-in-cheek bragging has Bajofondo boldly declaring that "even the dead" dance with them, with a braggadocio that owes as much to hip-hop as it does to tango itself.