Balkan Beat Box – Balkan Beat Box (Joub Records)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 9/25/05
Yes, it’s recognizably beat box, it’s Balkan, and it’s also Klezmerabian, it’s crazy and it fucking rocks! This is the shit, boy, this is what I’ve been looking for! Insane beats and cool riffs from all over the damn place. This is a brand new sound for me, and hard to describe, so just give it a listen. I’m gonna play this every time I’m on the air, and so should you! In fact, songs run together so you can leave it on as long as you like.
FCC clean, at least in English. I like the odd numbered tracks best for some reason, but they’re all totally great!
1. 4:10 **starts with a rooster crowing, goes right into a great rhythmic groove, girls yelling “cha cha”, some klezmer horns, grunts, northern African ululations…
2. 5:52 hand clapping, Bulgarian close harmonies, then beats and horns playing middle eastern tunes in Klezmer style.
3. 5:19 **starts out “buh buh buh”, goes into funk groove, cool guitar and undefinable Arabic female singing.
4. 4:03 Middle Eastern with remix sounds and Klezmer horns
5. 4:42 **starts with strangled vocals, into fast beat, African-sounding male vocals, Arabic vocals, gutteral noises – but it’s got a great beat and cool horns all along, ends with distant horns.
6. 3:35 middle eastern stringed instrument, horns, crashing sounds, male voices, cow bells and heavy reverb, then back to vocals.
7. 6:09 **starts with applause, right into music, mostly Klezmer, suddenly slides into cha cha a minute and a half in. Sweet!
8. 5:07 starts with applause again, then beats and whoops, very bouncy beat, lots of reverb, definitely a stoner track. Ends with pointless attempts to teach someone to pronounce band name.
9. 5:35 **nice build with great African male vocals and middle eastern horns. Cool uptempo groove, reverby bits, messy ending.
10. 3:53 fast beats, fragmented female vocals, quirky.
11. 4:25 **slow, relaxed, cool & a bit mysterious, mostly English vocals – hard to understand, but I think they’re talking about forcing Bush to belly dance with the resistance…