Balkan Beat Box – Blue Eyed Black Boy
Reviewed by Sadie O., 4/22/10
Balkan gypsy brass meets electronic club and hip hop – more of the latter end of the scale than previous releases (partially because of the vocals in English.) Still highly inventive, and more multi-cultural than ever. Basically a trio who had been a klezmer clarinetist, a drummer for Gogol Bordello, and an Israeli MC, who decided to go Balkan/Jamaican.
No FCCs detected. I like 2, 8-11 and 14 best.
1. 0:31 *electronic weeble, then slow collage hip hop intro, leads into next song.
2. 3:55 *****downtempo Bhangra/hip hop/club funk groove with what sounds like a ney (flugelhorn, I guess?). Gnarly! Lyrics in English.
3. 3:22 ***downtempo lazy stroll, sliding bass groove, cool elements from all over… Rather hippie-ish lyrics.
4. 4:08 ***trumpet blats, and lyrics in Spanish through a loudspeaker, swingy Latin groove. Adds up to a nicely crazed mess. Fades in the middle for a groovy trumpet solo. Train sounds at end…
5. 3:48 ***very slow, old fashioned sound, turns into a sort of limping Reggae, lyrics in English. Builds elements – nice. Fair amount of quark, strangeness and charm.
6. 3:44 **cobbled electronic beats, trumpet, uptempo and rather offkilter, in a nice way.
7. 4:06 **sweet, hippie-ish love song, builds and improves dramatically. The Balkan brass adds so much…
8. 3:20 ****loony yell, relaxed midtempo Balkan gypsy groove with a big mess of funk on top. Great stuff! Goes disenframbled in the middle.
9. 3:30 ****gronchy bass and swingy shuffle – a tiny bit of Bhangra, a bit of ney, and bit of laid back club groove. Hip hop vocals. Blends right into next track.
10. 3:49 *****continues the best from previous track, but adds on all sorts of electronic wibbles and Balkan brass – very groovy.
11. 3:36 ****slow throbbing beat, yoiking Eastern European chant, then uptempo syncopated groove with accordion. Expect anything!
12. 3:07 **sweet but lopassed groove with acoustic strings of various sorts, and vocals in English.
13. 4:39 ***North African strings and chanting. A bit Gnawa, a lot something else. Ends with breathy flute and chanting.
14. 3:08 ****big funky horn-based march with sirens, hip hop vocals. Very cool groove.