Customer Reviews

Band of Gypsies

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I heard this CD playing at FNAC in Paris two years ago. I bought it and 'Chagrin Seulement' and 'Une Tsigane' are now always on my laptop (and therefor always where I am). These guys play great and sing greater. The rawness and elemental qualities of the music make this a must have CD in any international music collection

I heard this CD playing in the International section of a record shop, and was so mesmerized by it, I spent 20 minutes trying to track down a salesperson that actually KNEW what was playing! When I brought it home and listened to it, I was not disappointed. The music is vibrant, exciting and beautiful. It expresses both joy and a haunting feeling of persecution - that which, as I understand it, is the essence of the Roma.

As a trained, musical person with a good ear, I can appreciate the melodies, harmonics and rhythms. You can dance to it, sing with it and just enjoy it!

Energizing is the word! This music is loud, fast, and with the fiddles, accordians, and guitars, intensely up beat and stimulating! Yes, there is sadness here also. After all, it is gypsy music. But the energy displayed here will dispel any Monday morning depression for sure!

The absence of English translations is a minus but certainly not big enough of one to knock off more than one star.

If you are tuned in to the gypsy spirit, to the uninhibited zest for life though tinged with sadness, you can not go any better than this!

If you haven't seen theese guys live yet you are missing some of the most inspiring and electrifing musicians of our time. Raw gypsy that will make any of your hairs stand up!
I hope they make more albums in the near future.

Closer to human speed than I recall on their eponymous 1999 CD, but still it generates a sense of bent bluegrass played by Cossacks on methamphetamine. Minor chords and ancient shadows have hooks in their souls, and they play like demons striving for the light. Remember to look for the strange attractor that offers an archetypal inner sstructure for the whirling, wild sparks of music. Focus of the calm center and let the whirling particles around it just fly right by. Live performance brings hints of Negresses Vertes. Stand-out: tr 13-Bride in a red dress (one instrument hands off to another, rotating a formidable pulse of power).

Why didn't I come across this band before! I love eastern European music --klezmer, Ivo Papasov, Yuri Yanakov-- and I love kicking bands. Taraf de Haidouks definitely kicks! On "The Return of the Magic Horses," they start off at furious pace --violin, woodwinds, cymbalum, double bass and accordion-- and never flag, handing the lead from one instrument to another, over and over, without any hitch in the tempo and no letting up of intensity. The band plays simultaneously tight and loose in ensemble, separate instruments weaving their own lines around each other, following each other's lead but each one creating a niche of sound and melody. But it is the vocals that appeal to me most: the sweet romantic "Little Buds," the trading off of vocals in the marvelous "Absinthe I Drink You, Absinthe I Eat You," and in "Green Leaf, Cover Leaf" and "Sorrow, Only My Sorrow." When I listen to this magical recording it brings memories of my father-in-law singing around the house in Slovak. The musicianship of the members of this band, and their guests for the concerts, is exceptional. I am especially impressed by Neculae Neacsu's playfully pizzicato violin solos on the first and last cuts ("Dance of the Firemen" and "Back to Clewjani") and the lightning fast accordion playing of Ionel "Ionitsa" Manole ("A Gypsy Had a House," "A Stork Crosses the Danube..." and "Green Leaf, Cover Leaf"). The cymbalum, which I've considered a musical instrument designed by a committee --part percussion, part zither-- fits here!

just listen to this!!!but you have to tie your legs and hands because you will fell like dancing!!!

Perhaps you're like me -- when it comes to gypsy music, you can pretty much take it or leave it. However, this is an interesting live album, because of the band's fluidity and playfulness, as well as its lightning-quick timing and tight arrangements. A carnival atmosphere prevails, as they zip through a remarkable mix of styles -- Arabic, Mediterranean, Slavic and Jewish music collide in a high-speed multi-culti chase. After a while this wore me down the way all gypsy records seem to, but for a while I was pretty entertained. Worth checking out.

This CD is great! It is nice to have a different cultural input!

The one very large flaw with this CD is the lack of any (English) translation to any of the songs.
What an oversight!
The songs are sung with such feeling it's hard not to be hugely curious.
Pity.