Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts

Monday, 23 March 2009

Kumpania Algazarra - The band that has been warming the streets!


Their music hit the streets on a special day, a day almost like all the others. It was in 2004. Like some sort of an anti-routine crew, inspired by the muses of festivity, in an exciting dialogue between music and liveliness, they created a framework for dancing and blissfulness. Their seeds, planted in the streets, flourished, as they started to perform on several stages.

In 2005, the EP was released. The first steps on the way to internationalization were given. They performed in festivals in Spain and did a tour in Slovenia. During their journey, they stood for anti-war initiatives, social, cultural and artistic causes, and supported immigrant communities, due to their engaged spirit.

In 2007, with live concerts filling the agenda, they are invited to participate in the recordings of other Portuguese projects like Terrakota and Blasted Mechanism. But they had still time to record their first album, with their own songs.

2008 started with the release of the album Kumpania Algazarra, bringing together fragments of their experiences in the streets, gardens, alleys, squares, unusual places, improvised parties and stages.

Their music is nomad, multilingual and universal.

They´re influenced by a kaleidoscopic sonority: Balkan furor, Arabic drifting, Latin warmth, Afro-Beat refinement, and explosions of Turbo folk and Ska.

The result of this variety of influences, brought together by a unique and original fusion process, is an energetic and contagious moment. Their lyrics invite to a reflection about the inhuman state of the world, and stimulate individual liberation. This musical project brings freshness and enriches the world music made in Portugal, extinguishing geographical and age limits.

Carrying the heritage of European fanfare, KUMPANIA ALGAZARRA flies over the new and the old continent, bringing nearer different ways of being, in life and in music. It´s a show made from melting sounds of folk, appropriate to street events, or to enliven acoustic spaces.

With a more complex and full-bodied instrumental formation, like a good wine, KUMPANIA ALGAZARRA go on stage ready to fire up the audience and shake the ground. Genuine in fusion, vigorous in their lyrics, with their instrumental lineup producing vibrant melodies, they make their shows unforgettable moments of festive celebration. Freedom is an attitude!


Algazarra warming the streets:


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MySpace: www.myspace.com/kumpaniaalgazarra

Buy CD: www.cdgo.com

Sunday, 22 March 2009

RAKIJA - Modern Balkan Music!


The band RAKIJA was formed in September 2007, and has been busy ever since. RAKIJA has played at some great places in Oslo and Norway, inspiring people to dance their shirts off at balkan parties, while moving other people to tears at acoustic performances.

The band RAKIJA is playing traditional music from Balkan in modern and fresh arrangements. After a short time the band became a live act well known for its broad appeal, great energy and musicality and they keep extending their audience. The band continues to grow as a musical unity, and for every gig it just gets better!




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Website: www.rakijaband.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/rakijaband

Monday, 9 March 2009

Asphalt Tango Records - the leading voice in Eastern and Gypsy Music!

The Berlin based company was founded by Asphalt Tango productions in cooperation with Piranha Music in the summer of 2002 to combine their long term experiences and know-how in developing new artists, into producing, releasing, publishing and distributing their music worldwide.



Balkan Beats Kollektiv wants to thank Asphalt Tango Records and his staff for supporting the blog! Special thanks to Claudia Nelke ;)



Asphalt Tango Records is currently managing and booking the following artists:

Kal (Serbia)

Kaloomé (France)

La Cherga (Balkan)

ErsatzMusika (Russia)

Fanfara Tirana (Albania)

Di Grine Kuzine (Germany)

Fanfare Ciocărlia (Romania)

Mahala Rai Banda (Romania)

The Gypsy Queens & Kings (Various)

Oana Cătălina Chiţu (Romania)

Jony Iliev & Band (Bulgaria)

Esma Redzepova (Macedonia)

Costel Vasilescu (Romania)

Romano Drom (Hungary)

Besh o droM (Hungary)

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Website: www.asphalt-tango.de

MySpace: www.myspace.com/asphalttangorecords

Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/AsphaltTangoRecords

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Asphalt-Tango/44947584355

Friday, 20 February 2009

Balkanology: Balkan Beats in South Africa!













Thought you could only listen Balkan music in Europe!?
Guess what: You're wrong!

Balkanology is a Cape Town (South Africa) based collective presenting the madness of Balkan and Gypsy music to Africa!
They throw massive manic parties where DJ’s and musicians perform a fusion of Gypsy, Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and Romanian melodies. It's the biggest Balkan party in South Africa. It's the only Balkan party in South Africa.
That's the transbalkan connection in showing itself!
















The Balkanology parties, with Dj Toby2shoes, started in Cape Town as small, occasional electro-Balkan-gypsy dances. In the two years since their inception, they have gathered a following of thousands (the last party in April saw two and a half thousand tickets sold). Capetonians love a celebration and these parties fit in perfectly with their love of eccentricity - styled as Eastern European gypsy camps with caravans, bales of hay, tents with tarot and palm-readers, goats, chickens and pigs, Balkanology is an opportunity to dress up and go wild.

The music, however, is what really drives the revelry. Traditional Balkan gypsy folk mixed with electronic beats is the simplest description, and the result is irresistible, compulsive celebration music. "A wild, heaving mass" is how the BBC's Garth Cartwright described German audiences' reaction when DJ Shantel began adding Balkan Brass breaks to his techno set back in the late 90’s. Since then, the electro-Balkan scene has exploded. DJ Toby2shoes, a pioneer of alternative music in general in South Africa, has become the ambassador for Balkan-gypsy-folk.



Balkanology Vol.1
Compiled by Toby2sho














Toby2sho choice of tracks for the Balkanology album consolidates his reputation as a highly skilled, innovative Dj in general, and for this music in particular. The 14-track compilation includes many of the most popular names in the genre – DJ Click, Balkan Beat Box, !Deladap, Kocani Orkestar - and three tracks mixed by DJ Shantel, who won a BBC World Music Award for clubbing music in 2006.

Toby2sho MySpace: www.myspace.com/toby2shoes
Buy Album: www.cdbaby.com

Tracklist:

1 Rona Hartner and DJ Click: Uhai Bade Tzuca-Ma
2 Dunkelbunt (Fanfare Ciocarlian & Dunkelbunt): Asfalt Tango
3 KAL: Komedija
4 Balkan Beat Box: Sunday Arak
5 Rootsman: Ta Travudia
6 DJ Click vs Mahala Rai Banda: Romano Dance
7 Gaetano Fabri vs Kocani Orkestar: Siki Siki Baba
8 Senor Coconut vs Kocani Orkestar: Usti Usti Baba
9 Shantel: Disko (Friends of Boban Mix)
10 Amsterdam Klezmer Band: Sagadoro Hot Dub (Shantel Remix)
11 Eastenders: Vino Iuberia Mea (!DelaDap remix)
12 Shantel feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar & Todor 'Tosa' Vukmirovic:
13 !Deladap feat. the Voice & Musicians of the 17 Hippies: Lautlos
14 Kolo Novo Movie Band: Bolujemja

Official site: www.balkanology.co.za
MySpace: www.myspace.com/balkanology

Monday, 16 February 2009

Special: Max Pashm!

Max Pashm

"An intense journey trought Balkan Music and Electronics!" - Balkan Beats Kollektiv


The ‘King of Falafel Techno’ leads a Jewish/Greek/Balkan collective in maximum mashed-up electronic beats and melodies from different traditions around the world.” - The Guardian Guide

Blistering Balkan beats and general nu-world trippiness from the highly danceable grooves of Max Pashm.” - Time Out

Sun-blushed, bouzouki-fuelled Med mix-up.” - fRoots



Max Pashm first rose to fame in 1997 as one of the early pioneers of world fusion music, before the Balkan sound became omnipresent in Global Beats and World Music circles.

The ‘Max Pashm’ sound is a unique blend of Klezmer, Balkan, Greek, Gypsy Punk with blistering electronic beats. A daring and perfect marriage fusing the old traditions with the new and cutting edge sounds of today and the future.

The ‘Max Pashm Band’ is a collective of some of the finest UK based Jewish, Greek and Balkan musicians, including the bouzouki maestro George Kypreos, the imfamous Merlin Shepherd on Klezmer clarinet, Bulgarian singer Eugenia Georgieva, guitarist Rik Harrington and of course Max Pashm himself on vocals, percussion and electronics.



After the release of the new ‘Max Pashm’ album ‘Never mind the Balkans’, the ‘Max Pashm Band’ have performed over 40 shows in 12 different countries in 2008.
















The live shows are a high energy experience, combining top musicianship with pulsing electronics and an underlying sense of humour and fun!
As well as all the traditional influences, the shows contain flavours of Dub, Ska, Hip-Hop, Rock and Punk, blending many genres and styles to create a unique sound and performance, with lyrics in Greek, Bulgarian, Yiddish and English.


Get to the end of the ‘Max Pashm Band’ show and you might just agree: ‘Never Mind The Balkans - Here’s Max Pashm’.


MySpace: www.myspace.com/maxpashm

Shop: www.maxpashm.dloadshop.com