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Excerpt from larger article about Gypsy Rock
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As bands from New York to Denver to Russia flavor traditional Eastern European music with rock, punk, and hip-hop, even Hollywood is getting into the act.
"Tonight is about the juxtaposition of the supernew sound and the superold sound. Who the fuck doesn't know that?" It's the final gig of the New York Gypsy Festival, and Gogol Bordello leader Eugene Huetz is baiting the crowd at Manhattan nightspot LQ. Filling the dance floor are young people of Eastern European descent, club crawlers, and many who are a proud combination of the two. The night's lineup began with Acquaragia Drom, a group from a small Gypsy village in Italy, who boasted that participating in their call-and-response songs would solve sexual problems. (They did this as a video projection detailed the long-standing persecution of Gypsies in Europe, including the forced sterilization of millions.) Then came the Kolpakov Trio, a family act from Huetz's Russian/Ukranian servo tribe, who played seven-string guitars and started tunes with a hearty "Opa!"
But Huetz's claim most accurately describes Kultur Shock, a band from Seattle (via Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Japan), whose dreadlocked lead singer wore a HARD ROCK SARAJEVO t-shirt. During their set, a belly dancer revealed much skin and occasionally interrupted her hip-twitching with headbanging. And while the opening acts played raucous acoustic dance numbers perfect for a wedding reception, Kultur Shock roared like Gypsy thrash - like System of a Down with even more exotic filigree.
Gypsies aren't entirely new to American pop. Gipsy Kings, those rumba players from southern France, released their trillion-selling restaurant-friendly U.S. debut in 1988. But it's only recently that the Gypsy sound has infiltrated the indie scene. Huetz (whose band played on last summer's Warped Tour) regularly spins a disorienting mix of European styles at New York clubs, while Gypsy funk band Slavic Soul Party! entertain crowds every week in Brooklyn. The Electric Gypsyland remix compilation series has offered a Westernized take on the sound, as have Basement Jaxx. The British duo incorporated Balkan horns on their recent Crazy Itch Radio album and released (on their own label) Gypsy Beats and Balkan Bangers, which includes Gogol Bordello and fellow New Yorkers Balkan Beat Box, as well as European band Mahala and Kocani appeared on the soundtrack to Borat, while Denver-based DeVotchKa did the score for Little Miss Sunshine. Even a mellow, bedroom version of the rowdy culture caught the buzz of press and blogs when Beirut released their 2006 debut, Gulag Orkestar.
Traditionally, Gypsy has been a derogatory term, derived from the misconception that the people originated in Egypt, when in fact they were from India. While some still prefer the term Roma (which comes from the Sanskrit word for "man"), many now embrace the slang, as do most of the bands in the scene. The definition of the Gypsy sound is equally contested. The Roma are nomadic, and they've assembled a culture from the places they've passed through, spawning new styles along the way. Building on their Indian and Arab roots, they adapted their music to include Jewish klezmerand Balkan Brass, which later influenced flamenco in Spain and jazz in France. On this side of the Atlantic, musicians continue to mix in even more styles: punk (Gogol Bordello), hip-hop (Balkan Beat Box), mariachi (DeVotchKa), and indie rock (Beirut).
In Europe, Gypsy music is a proud tradition that is passed down the generations. But there are some who think you don't need to be the child of Gypsies to be a Gypsy. Balkan Beat Box's Tamir Muskat grew up in Israel, the offspring of Romanian Jews who fled there during World War II. Although he isn't part of a Romanian bloodline, Muskat says the ethnicities are united by their troubles.
"Before Israel was created, the Jewish race was just chasing their tails around Europe for thousands of years, exactly like the Gypsies and for the same reasons," he says. "In my dictionary, a Gypsy is the definition of a soul, not a color or place. It's a take on life, a certain freedom that came out of oppression."
In 2002, Muskat (a drummer for the rock bands Firewater and Big Lazy) helped produce Gogol Bordello's Multi Kontra Culti vs. Irony album. Huetz invited him and former Gogol saxophonist Ori Kaplan to join his side project J.U.F. Teutonic electro-punks DAF's acronym for "German-American Friendship"). Together they meshed the sounds of their homelands with all manner of rebelious music - reggae, hip-hop, electronic. After recording Gogol Bordello vs. Tamir Muskat, Kaplan and Muskat continued experimenting with new sound, calling themselves Balkan Beat Box. On their self-titled 2005 debut album, Kaplan arranged jaunty horn lines over Muskat's beats and samples. "We use beats that are familiar from Western culture," he says. "Maybe that's our lucky number, because I don't know that Americans would take this music for its pureness."
During their live shows, the group's hip-hop influence is more apparent. With the addition of MC Tomer Yosef, the music takes on an aggressive edge, and the audience becomes a pulsing mass of hands in the air and bobbing, sweaty heads. "We'll play in places like Bloomington, Indiana, and we'll get 3,000 people just going crazy, like they grew up on the music," Muskat says. "We almost feel a responsibility to deliver this music the fresh ears, and the political statement as well. We're a combination of Middle Eastern, Palestinian, and Moroccan people working with a bunch of Israelis. I don't really see that happening anywhere."
-Lindsey Thomas 01/01/07
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