Balkan Beat Box comes to Castaways

The band's self-titled debut CD blends electronic and hiphop beats with melodies from the Middle East, North Africa and and the Balkans. But that's just a starting point for the band's stage show, according to percussionist Tamir Muskat.

“This is what we do, except it gets much wilder on stage,” he says. “We're playing this music, plus much more—since the album was written, we've managed to complete almost another album. Just take that music and put an acid pill on it, and you've got the live show.”

Founded by Muskat and Ori Kaplan, Israelis born to Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Balkan Beat Box brings draws from a variety of influences, both old and new.

“We have to bring it some kind of twist to the baggage we've managed to collect over the 12 or 15 years we've lived in New York,” Muskat says. “The only way to do it was to revisit this music which we grew up on, and twist it to something new and fresh in our eyes.

“As far as instrumentation, we definitely use anything we feel like. We're not limited in a way that maybe a typical band would be with bass, guitar and drums; we basically use anything we want, and when it's time to bring it onstage. We use a lot of electronics on stage, as well, such as samples. We love the combination.”

The band writes its songs in the studio. “We write them almost like hiphop artists would write songs,” says Muskat. “We jump into the studio, start a beat that's interesting and has some kind of a movement, and the melodies will follow. Sometimes we'll stay in the studio and all our beats will start creating a harmony movement, and we build it piece by piece. In other cases, we'll get an interesting accapella track, like the Bulgarian Chicks; we got two vocal tracks from them, and built everything around it.

“Every song has its own story. It just really working with nothing that's a traditional way of recording in any way—it can really go upside down, from the vocal or the beat. Everything in the studio on the spot. We go for an interesting creative environment, and hopefully good stuff is coming out of it.”

The band is just back from performing in Israel. “Ori and I are based in New York City, but the rest of band is from Israel,” says Muskat. “We tour Europe more than we tour the U.S., and we visit the Middle East at least three times a year. We just played there, which was kind of a tough time. Everyone who was supposed to come to Israel in the last three months basically cancelled, like Depeche Mode and Blonde Redhead, because of insurance issues and fear of the current political situation. But we had just finished a European tour and decided to go play shows there. We played four shows, two of them was when the war was at its peak, and two when the cease fire took place.”

Muskat says Balkan Beat Box sees itself as a political band. “Not in the sense of taking any specific on the matter, but we definitely don't support Israel in its actions in this case, as we make it very clear,” he says. “We definitely don't support the government in this country acting like a vicious empire,and we make that very clear. Our main mission is to just use the power we have, which is music.”

“It's pretty obvious that we're doing much better than any ambassador from Europe. We're just going directly to the people, straight to their feelings and hearts and I think it usually leaves the biggest impact this way.”

Visit www.balkanbeatbox.com to learn more about the band.

Opening the Sunday show is Golem, another Eastern European-inspired band.

Advance tickets for the 9 p.m. show are $12 and available at Volume Records, Castaways and Ithaca Guitar Works. At the door, admission is $15. Visit www.castwaysithaca.com or call 272-1370 for more information.