Free Slavic Soul Party! track
We mentioned earlier that Slavic Soul Party! have a great new album out. SSP! once again mixes the modern with the tradition on "Taketron", an album overflowing with compositions and arrangements from different members of the band.
Balkan Brass World is happy to offer you a free mp3 download of the title track:
Slavic Soul Party! - Taketron
Buy Taketron from Amazon.com
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Balkan Brass World is happy to offer you a free mp3 download of the title track:
Slavic Soul Party! - Taketron
Buy Taketron from Amazon.com
Gogol Bordello: "Live from Axis Mundi" out now
Gogol Bordello's epic historical document "Live at Axis Mundi" is now available in finer stores and you can have it sent directly to your dwelling via the Gogol online store. If digital downloads are your jam you can purchase a special version from Itunes.
"Live at Axis Mundi" includes both a CD of BBC Sessions, Outtakes and Demos PLUS a DVD with a full concert filmed at NYC's legendary Irving Plaza, behind the curtain scenes and more! Its all the stuff you've been asking for...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
"Live at Axis Mundi" includes both a CD of BBC Sessions, Outtakes and Demos PLUS a DVD with a full concert filmed at NYC's legendary Irving Plaza, behind the curtain scenes and more! Its all the stuff you've been asking for...
New Slavic Soul Party! album: Taketron
Slavic Soul Party! is more than a band, it's a promise. Anyone who has seen them live can attest to that. The massive brass band is a supercollider of Eastern European sounds from the Balkans and all the funk of American musical traditions like second-line, gospel, and jazz. Hybridity isn't just a buzzword with this New York City-based group - domestic and foreign, new and old - it's a fact of life. The fusion even carries over into the title of the band's fifth album, Taketron, mashing up Japanese drummer Take Toriyama's love of electronic music with the rapid fire of Balkan brass, and the incessant creativity of some of New York's finest musicians.
As with fellow Balkan fusionists like Gogol Bordello (which has featured SSP! on album) and Balkan Beat Box (who borrows SSP! members for tours and recordings), SSP! has connected with audiences at home and abroad. When at home the nine-piece band (give or take a few members, depending on the night) can be found playing Tuesday nights at the hip music club Barbes in Brooklyn, whose signature label is releasing Taketron. The band has also made key appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, played weddings and rock clubs, as well as brass band festivals in the Balkans.
Bandleader and percussionist Matt Moran continues to see the band's profile rise, but he's most excited about the music’s possibilities amongst younger audiences. "We've seen this huge explosion of brass bands in the U.S. and in Europe in the last eight years and it begs a question: why are all these young kids getting into this music when they should be running to the turntables and the electric guitars? Brass bands are like living off the grid or growing your own food: a lot more trouble, a lot more rewarding, and fundamentally subversive. We're not wearing the school uniform, playing the electric guitar, or taking the easy path."
SSP! once again mixes the modern with the tradition on Taketron, an album overflowing with compositions and arrangements from different members of the band. According to Moran, "I think Taketron really shows our original style, more so than any of our other records. People in the U.S. assume that we are playing traditional Balkan music, but people over there who play in bands say that we totally have our own style. I think with this record we are going to clear up any confusion."
Taketron showcases its hybridity in "Sancti Petri," which was originally a flamenco guitar tune, or the more electronic music inspired rhythms on tunes like the title track. SSP! also demonstrates how they breath new life to more traditional sounding tunes like the gospel classic "Canaan Land" and a little Romanian/Moldovan gem "Sarba" (which could pass for a Raymond Scott cartoon classic). Regardless, this band has it own ideas of what a brass band is and it's big, vivid and brazen if not always Balkan. Yet there is subtlety here as well - enjoy the gentle playfulness of that ska-like backbeat on "Sviraj Srecko" and savor the slow elegiac opening to "Hymn," a closer that lets you catch your breath before a final farewell.
Buy Taketron from Amazon.com
Monday, October 5, 2009
As with fellow Balkan fusionists like Gogol Bordello (which has featured SSP! on album) and Balkan Beat Box (who borrows SSP! members for tours and recordings), SSP! has connected with audiences at home and abroad. When at home the nine-piece band (give or take a few members, depending on the night) can be found playing Tuesday nights at the hip music club Barbes in Brooklyn, whose signature label is releasing Taketron. The band has also made key appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, played weddings and rock clubs, as well as brass band festivals in the Balkans.
Bandleader and percussionist Matt Moran continues to see the band's profile rise, but he's most excited about the music’s possibilities amongst younger audiences. "We've seen this huge explosion of brass bands in the U.S. and in Europe in the last eight years and it begs a question: why are all these young kids getting into this music when they should be running to the turntables and the electric guitars? Brass bands are like living off the grid or growing your own food: a lot more trouble, a lot more rewarding, and fundamentally subversive. We're not wearing the school uniform, playing the electric guitar, or taking the easy path."
SSP! once again mixes the modern with the tradition on Taketron, an album overflowing with compositions and arrangements from different members of the band. According to Moran, "I think Taketron really shows our original style, more so than any of our other records. People in the U.S. assume that we are playing traditional Balkan music, but people over there who play in bands say that we totally have our own style. I think with this record we are going to clear up any confusion."
Taketron showcases its hybridity in "Sancti Petri," which was originally a flamenco guitar tune, or the more electronic music inspired rhythms on tunes like the title track. SSP! also demonstrates how they breath new life to more traditional sounding tunes like the gospel classic "Canaan Land" and a little Romanian/Moldovan gem "Sarba" (which could pass for a Raymond Scott cartoon classic). Regardless, this band has it own ideas of what a brass band is and it's big, vivid and brazen if not always Balkan. Yet there is subtlety here as well - enjoy the gentle playfulness of that ska-like backbeat on "Sviraj Srecko" and savor the slow elegiac opening to "Hymn," a closer that lets you catch your breath before a final farewell.
Buy Taketron from Amazon.com
Balkan Revolutia Festival
November 7th in De Melkweg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands:
Friday, October 2, 2009
Balkan invasion
The German Piranha label reports:
Open the floodgates, there's a big Balkan wave coming at you! Get your toes wet with the ballsy brass madness of Boban i Marko Markovic's brand new album "Devla: Blown Away to Dancefloor Heaven", available worldwide as digital download on 2 October with physical releases spreading out region by region thereafter.
Fans in Berlin have a lot to look forward to the following week: on 6 October Shantel's "Planet Paprika" release party concert features Mr. BalkanBeats himself, Robert Soko. On 8 October Boban i Marko Markovic storm the Kesselhaus stage with a special guest appearance by our favorite Power-Frau Miss Platnum. After that, those fans still able to party can get a foretaste of the upcoming Piranha release "BalkanBeats: A Night in Berlin" at Robert Soko's monthly Lido blowout on the 10th. His new compilation hits the shops 30 October.
The Piranha Distribution Service joins the Balkanisation trend with a release from Croatia's Tom Waits, Darko Rundek. The ex-Haustor frontman's "Live in Youth Club Belgrade" is out on 9 October.
Get more info here:
Boban i Marko Markovic's "Devla":
http://lnk.piranha.de/www.piranha.de/devla
Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar at Berlin's Kesselhaus:
http://www.kesselhaus-berlin.de/
Shantel and Robert Soko in Berlin, BalkanBeats Party in Lido:
http://www.balkanbeats.de/wp/?page_id=29
BalkanBeats-A Night in Berlin:
http://lnk.piranha.de/www.piranha.de/balkanbeats_berlin
Darko Rundek:
http://www.piranha.de/english/piranha_musik_verlag/darko_rundek
Open the floodgates, there's a big Balkan wave coming at you! Get your toes wet with the ballsy brass madness of Boban i Marko Markovic's brand new album "Devla: Blown Away to Dancefloor Heaven", available worldwide as digital download on 2 October with physical releases spreading out region by region thereafter.
Fans in Berlin have a lot to look forward to the following week: on 6 October Shantel's "Planet Paprika" release party concert features Mr. BalkanBeats himself, Robert Soko. On 8 October Boban i Marko Markovic storm the Kesselhaus stage with a special guest appearance by our favorite Power-Frau Miss Platnum. After that, those fans still able to party can get a foretaste of the upcoming Piranha release "BalkanBeats: A Night in Berlin" at Robert Soko's monthly Lido blowout on the 10th. His new compilation hits the shops 30 October.
The Piranha Distribution Service joins the Balkanisation trend with a release from Croatia's Tom Waits, Darko Rundek. The ex-Haustor frontman's "Live in Youth Club Belgrade" is out on 9 October.
Get more info here:
Boban i Marko Markovic's "Devla":
http://lnk.piranha.de/www.piranha.de/devla
Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar at Berlin's Kesselhaus:
http://www.kesselhaus-berlin.de/
Shantel and Robert Soko in Berlin, BalkanBeats Party in Lido:
http://www.balkanbeats.de/wp/?page_id=29
BalkanBeats-A Night in Berlin:
http://lnk.piranha.de/www.piranha.de/balkanbeats_berlin
Darko Rundek:
http://www.piranha.de/english/piranha_musik_verlag/darko_rundek
