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What Gaby Kerpel did on 2003's Carnabailito is only rivaled in originality -- perhaps -- by fellow Argentineans Juana Molina and Kevin Johansen. Cannibalizing the folk of Argentina's northeast as well as tango, pop and even Chinese classical music, he approached the whole album with a slanted, organic yet orchestral take that evokes some unwitting combination of Tom Waits and Manu Chao, melding Chao's insouciant sound-borrowing with Wait's twisted investigations into dark corners. Kerpel grew up in Buenos Aires, where he was steeped in classical music and piano. It took a seven-year stint as the music director for the genre-bending theater group La Organizacion Negra for him to find his own musical voice, which proved to be less orthodox than his musical training would suggest. When La Organizacion Negra broke up, a few members went on to form De La Guarda, and released an album with the help of fellow Argentinean Gustavo Santaolalla in 1995. Santaolalla also produced Carnabailito.
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