balkan

L’Attirail takes Balkan folk & klezmer into new & cinematic territories with their 2007 album Kara Deniz, and continues to do so on their recently released “Wilderness”. And it’s exactly their progressive tone and soundtrackist mentality that sets them apart from traditional Eastern European folklore/ klezmer bands.

* New Thrill Parade
* Wait til the ice melts, compilation on Exponential
* Plunderphonics band Oh Astro
* Seattle singer-songwriter Andy Liotta

Here’s the last part, from now on new music!!
05 A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangár Ensemble – Self Titled
04 High on Fire – Death Is This Communion
03 Upsilon Acrux – Galapagos Momentum
02 Marnie Stern – In Advance of the Broken Arm
01 Future of the Left – Curses

15 Battles – Mirrored (Warp Records) : Everybody’s been talking about “Mirrored” this year, and they kind of deserve it for getting their oddtimed dissonant music to find strange acclaim from mainstream circles as well as mathheads.
14 Deejay OM – Reheated Naan and Curry (Galapagos4) : A fine hybrid of Indian samples mixed with beats. Somehow liked it much more than Madlib’s take. Past

Make sure you check out Diplo’s Hollertronix version of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal, A Balkanified Bolero and the Indian hit “Awara Hoon” by 3 Mustaphas 3. Enjoy.

For all the balkan & klezmer fans out there, this one goes out to you. It’s not one of my best shows i must admit, but i’ve been trying to tone the musical variety down in these last shows, attempting to make more wholesome shows and i hope in time i’ll get better at it.

Going on a short weekend vacation at 10AM and it’s already 3AM here and I need some sleep, so here are 2 faves from the last months. First, a smoky roots reggae/dub hit from 70’s Jamaica, remastered this year by Wackies. Bullwackies All-Stars’ Free for All is the title track and it was out on The Heptones’ Hepic label.

We’ve already mentioned this year’s most exciting lineup on Leaf where A Hawk and a Hacksaw meet with the Hun Hangar Ensemble lead by Béla Ágostone master of Hungarian folk music & jazz and a multi instrumentalist playing Hungarian bagpipes, clarinet, alto saxophone, taragoto, viola.