Apr 10/08
Eastern London
During one of my recent trips to London my old friend James and I went to see Shantel & Bucovina Club Orkestar. I had always wanted to go to the Bucovina Club nights in Frankfurt but never made it over, so I’d finally catch-up with Shantel at a London venue conveniently near work, Koko.
If you’ve been to one of Shantel’s shows or a Bucovina night you’ll know that they’re a lot of fun. What’s not to like about a German DJ playing live then spinning tunes of heavy brassed Balkan dance music? The venue was great, too, and the crowd was dancing like mad.
The next night James and I found ourselves at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club in East London. As it happens, while sipping beers in a hall that reminded me of childhood Ukrainian weddings, the DJs filled our ears all night with gypsy brass attacks… my week in London was taking a definite turn for the Balkans.
My Paris has been heading that way lately, too. Zaklina had us doing strong Balkan shots at a Serbian dance party in a bar near my apartment not so long ago; Louise and I stumbled into a gypsy jazz party a few weeks ago; Alex reminded us all of the wonders of the cymbalom a couple months ago…
As my friend Emmanuel pointed out the other night this certainly isn’t the first time that big brass, cymbaloms and other things musically Balkan have invaded the clubs and mixtapes of Western Europe. A few years ago Taraf de Haïdouks were all the rage in France, and many others have come and gone since
But this time, personally, I’m more into it. I find myself listening to Boban Markovic and Fanfare Ciocărlia often now, and not just for a little horn fix.
It was the success of people and groups like Markovic and the various Fanfares from Serbia, Romania, Albania and elsewhere that Shantel built on to bring his Bucovina to the masses. So today we’ll start with some Shantel, move to his influences, then finish up with a couple favourites to round off the post.
You can see the video of Shantel’s big hit here. The second Shantel track I’ll post is an older mix from 2003 featuring the Boban Markovic Orchestrar.
We’ll hear two tracks from Boban Markovic: the first from his 2003 collaborative release with his 15-year-old son, Marko; the second from his 2005 release, The Promise. (I had a chance to see Boban Markovic in Paris the other night but I had already bought tickets to see Alela Diane. Alela was amazing, though, so no worries. Next time.)
Next some music by the wonderful Romanian group, Fanfare Ciocărlia. Romanian.. I’ve always had a thing for that language. I’ve got to visit the country someday soon. The first track is off their latest album, 2007’s Queens and Kings, and the second is from their first wide-release, Radio Pascani from back in that glorious year, 1998.
As I mentioned above a few weeks ago my friend Alex re-introduced us to the wonders of the cymbalom, a string instrument akin to an inside-out piano that’s very popular in Romanian traditional music. Today we’ll hear what’s easily my favourite track off Alex’s mix by the Romanian super-group, Clejani Express. It’s from their 2007 release, A Devla. I’ve caught myself singing this while riding my bike to work on a number of occasions.. you can imagine the strange looks this gets me from the Parisian passers-by, baguette and small dog in tow.
Last we’ll hear a tune that caught my ear by a Croatian band, now based in France, Darko Rundek & Cargo Orkestar.
We owe much of this music to the fine Germans at Piranha Records. If you’re into this stuff check-out their amazing catalogue of Balkan music. A lot of the Piranha albums are available for download at Calabash and Emusic.
Shantel - Disko Partizani
Shantel feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar - Disko (Friends of Boban mix)
Boban Markovic - Balkan Fest
Boban Markovic Orkestar - Voz
Fanfare Ciocărlia - Duj Duj
Fanfare Ciocărlia - Hora cu Strigaturii
Clejani Express - Foaie Verde
Darko Rundek & Cargo Orkestar - Ista Slika
April 10th, 2008 at 10:19 am
hey matt,
good stuff, balkan getting into afrospheres here!
perhaps not brass at all, but there are gypsy styles from Hungary and Transylvania that haven’t not got much attention (bar none) in this balkan hype that swoops western Europe. The Csarda and Korcos styles. All done with polyphonic violins and cello’s alone that gives the sound a bizarre fullness of acoustic drones. there’s a small piece about it on my home blog -old style rabbit-.
especially look for old men bands like Magyarpalatkai from Hungary, where most of their best players are elderly now.
In north-western Romania in Transylvania and Crisana at the Hungarian border there is this same style, but played at a slightly different pace. In Gatlif’s movie Transylvania you can see a *déchirant* tune done by 3 violinists.
another straight-up and unknown gypsy piece, is Acquaragia Drom’s album Zingari, a band of Sinti Roms from Napoli, Italy, released in 1995. clue: their music is quite undiscovered in the gypsy party scene.
happy soundhunting!
greetings from India.
seb
April 10th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Thanks for the posts. Between work and school I don’t have much time to dedicate to exploring new music. Your updates allow me to keep my mind and ears open during this busy phase of my life. The importance of the cultural exchange that takes place through sharing music cannot be overstated. Keep up the great work! Merci beaucoup!
April 13th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
So, is it Balkan, is it Gypsy? I’ve heard the 2 used interchangeable as this music gets better known. I first heard it as modern Gypsy music, dance music for Balkan festivities but Gypsy musicians were THE entertainers.
Now it’s more worldwide, it gets referred to as Balkan music.
Does it matter? And how has one become the other?
April 18th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Markovic’s “Balkan Fest” sounds a lot like stuff I’ve heard from the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Interesting.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Seb- thanks for the tips. Care for a guest post?
Kate- IMHO, the term “Balkan music” is much more general than “Gypsy music”. The word “gypsy” is avoided a lot these days for some good and some stupid reasons.. but anyway, “gypsy jazz” and other gypsy genres usually refer to music influenced by traditional Roma music. Balkan music may include elements from the music of nomadic Eastern European peoples, but there’s a lot more there as well.
Cheers
Matt
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
hey matt,
thanks, yeah I would be into that at some point.
though it will have to wait a week or so, as I’m just back in Brussels from my 6 months traveling in India and life is a bit messy now.
Kate, the term balkan being used for gypsy music or vice versa is indeed making false friends since both don’t always have to do with each other. Markovic does fit the balkan music coin since his style of music isn’t gypsy music but is mostly inspired by old army marching band. The again, Fanfare Ciocarlia don’t fit the balkan anorak, since they are Romanian and some members are Roma gypsies.
either way, both names are pinned on the eastern european styles as generalised form of music, which is misleading for listeners. I reckon the music press and promoters are to blame for this lazy and hyped use of this terminology.
While in the Rajasthani folk institute last week, I stumbled upon a very good book on Hungarian folk music and songs by Zoltan Kordaly (Folk music of Hungary) and I read some chapters of it, quite an eyeopener too!
In this, Kordaly speaks a lot about the influence (or defluence) of the Roma gypsies, as he claims (and proves) that Hungarian and Romanian Roma’s actually have always played old Hungarian folk tunes and reworked them into their own language and rhythms. All these songs have spread over Eastern Europe through the gypsies, so as well as changing the songs, they also promoted them wide and far on their nomadic goings, but just not in the original version. Remixers on the road? surely. So yeah, all gypsy music can be traced back to Hungarian folk, so most of the music traces that they left in the balkan can also be regarded as such.
well Matt, I reckon I can prepare a post about elaborating this further……