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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
In a Box, March 25, 2006
Not every album kicks off with a rooster crowing. But then, not every band is brave enough for some quirky folk/hip-hop as their main sound.
Much like their sister band Gogol Bordello, Balkan Beat Box creates a funky mishmash of cultural influences. But their music ends up sounding like a gypsy electronica musician who just got back from a Middle-Eastern tour. Yup, it's really as wild as it sounds.
It kicks off with the most infectious song on the album, "Cha Cha," which commands you "dance!" before the beat kicks in -- deliciously funky and danceable. It's followed by the glorious "Bulgarian Chicks," which has Vlada Tomova & Kristin Espeland singing merrily over trumpets and dancey beats.
Then they take a detour out of folkland, with dark hip-hop, Middle Eastern wails, sultry European saxophones, and delightfully raucous blasts of Eastern-European rock'n'roll, with chants interspersing blasts of grimy guitar. It ends on a surprisingly low-key note, with the hypnotic beats of "La Bush Resistance," with Tomer Yosef and Amir Shahasar chanting over it all.
If you had to describe Balkan Beat Box, then it would probably be Middle-Eastern/Jewish/gypsy beatbox/rock/electrofolk. If there's a name for fusion music like that, I'd love to hear of it, because it would probably be as entertainingly colourful as the music itself.
Balkan Beat Box's strongest point is its instrumentation -- we've got the usual instruments, but they're almost smothered in a thick layer of woodwinds, trombones, trumpets, sax and electronic programming here and there. And the musical styles are flexible -- we've got the jagged hip-hop right next to slithering Mid-East beats and bouncy Eastern European stuff.
The vocals per se aren't really provided by the official band, but by a long list of vocalists who sort of chip in on one song each. This can be a little confusing at times, especially since none of them really sound like each other, but it does add to the raucously unexpected sound of the album.
If anybody is completely sick of prepackaged, flavourless pop music, then they should check out Balkan Beat Box. Colourful, energetic and thoroughly entertaining.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crazy World Beat Gyrations, October 17, 2005
I had the pleasure of seeing this amazing outfit live in Madison, WI as part of the World Music Festival on the UW Madison campus. These musicians from around the globe stole the show. Fantastic energy and fresh, fresh, fresh combinations of world music mixed with contrasting samples and grooving beats.
Needless to say I had to have their disc. It is superb. All the things they did live were distilled and focussed here. Even the chicken on the cover, which crows during some songs. I have listened to this disc at least 20 times already and still have trouble prying it from my player.
This is what the future of music is looking like.
Also check out Gogol Bordello.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I know what I like, October 4, 2005
Sample the second song. Sample the other songs. Order the disc and be prepared to have your musical world expand. Whatever you may call this stuff it is wonderful in ways that keep calling and when you find yourself humming one of these tunes as you wander the supermarket shopping for dinner you get to go back home and crank it up while you cook. Good eatin'.
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