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Eastern Bloc Party: Balkan sounds make Old World new again
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Paste Magazine, Eastern Bloc Party: Balkan sounds make Old World new again >>
Onstage at a packed club, Ori Kaplan peers over his saxophone into the audience. Middle-aged orthodox-Jewish men, women in Stevie Nicks-style gypsy blouses, crusty punks and college hipsters all dance side by side. It’s the kind of diversity that takes Kaplan’s band, Balkan Beat Box, closer to its goal—a goal even more elusive than the band’s fusion of Jewish klezmer melodies, Balkan brass-band stomp and frenetic gypsy rhythms with hip-hop, reggae and electro production. “We want to create utopia,” says Kaplan. “And music is a blank page on which to do it.”
Kaplan and drummer Tamir Muskat, Israeli transplants to New York City, aren’t alone in their belief that music can change the world. By the time Kaplan departed his previous band (gypsy-punkers Gogol Bordello) to found Balkan Beat Box with Muskat, he’d seen what a rock band could do for an oft-derided culture. Today, groups influenced by Eastern European music—the so-called “Balkan beat” from which Kaplan’s band gets its name—can be heard at rock shows and in dance clubs across America and Europe. And with artists like Devotchka, Beirut, Gogol Bordello and Balkan Beat Box making an impact beyond the “world music” bins, the idea of changing the world’s perceptions no longer seems far-fetched. 12/12/06 >> go there
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