blurb #2, podcast form

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Balkan and gypsy folk-punk-rock-funk isn’t a genre you usually hear much about, but it’s certainly up and coming in the NYC music scene. Bands like Slavic Soul Party, DeVotchka, Gogol Bordello and Kocani Orkestar are making strides in blurring lines between genres. I had the privilege of seeing a live Slavic Soul Party show at Southpaw in Brooklyn this past weekend, and I don’t think anything I can possibly say in this podcast will do it justice. The crowd was a mix of age, style, dance ability and sobriety, but everyone enjoyed themselves immensely. The band itself was electric, fusing traditional Eastern European tunes and playing styles with American grooves and pop tunes, too. The songs they played ranged from the new, from their latest release, to the old, reaching back to the beginning of the band’s career, to the universally known – Romanian and gypsy standards turned into a big Balkan brass jam, turntables spinning all the while.

I’ve been a fan of Slavic Soul Party for a few years and had heard about their wild shows, but had never experienced one for myself. Going into the experience with a little background knowledge on their music was helpful: for example, a lot of their songs are in unusual time signatures – unusual to folks with ears attuned to Western music, but not to the likes of Bulgarians or Romanians. It makes it a little bit hard to dance to, although they are called dance rhythms, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. The song that’s been playing so far is one just like that, called Ruchenista.

The big band includes accordion, saxophone, trumpets, tenor horns, trombones, tuba, snare drum and bass drum, as well as various other DJs, electronic musicans, a keyboardist every now and then and the occasional vocalist. At the show, the crowd sang along loudly and enthusiastically, shaking the walls and bumping into one another with a smile as they did so. I left the venue with my feet aching, drenched in sweat and someone else’s beer, but entirely and undeniably happy.