Also struggling to be atop the play pile this month is Boban Markovic and his Orkestar live in Belgrade, on the top-notch Piranaha label. It's a long time since I was in Beograd and it was grim then, I can't imagine what the years of war and hardship have done to the place, though the old stone walls surely must be standing, if a bit more pitted. I remember one night in the south of country, in Nish, being taken to visit a local curiosity: the skull tower. I wasn't prepared for what I saw: a whole tower built of human skulls, as a legacy of a visit by the Ottoman Turks. Those Serbs and Macedonians learned how to make an impressive statement, though I'd rather they were all musical ones. The martial might of a big brass ensemble has not dimmed and they come on furiously like a horde of invaders with do or die on their minds. In fact, the liner notes by Frank London (himself an accomplished musician) argue that if Bill Clinton didn't play sax all these guys would be dead in the NATO bombing. Fans of Boban know he has won the Golden Trumpet at the Annual Guca festival so many times he's been excluded from competition.