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CD Review
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Orlando Sentinel , CD Review >>
-by Jim Abbott
Balkan Beat Box: Nu-Med (4 Stars Out Of 5)
Even more than Ozomatli, a band with which it can be loosely compared, Balkan Beat Box is best experienced live.
Yet even in the one-dimensional realm of a studio album such as Nu-Med, the band's raucous blend of old-school instrumentation and 21st- century electronic touches is exhilarating.
Wisely, Balkan Beat Box incorporates live elements in these 14 songs, weaving in excerpts and crowd noise from performances at Roskilde, Bonnaroo and Paleo music festivals. The blurring is most effective in the album's opening "Keep 'Em Straight" introduction and then sexy, twisting melody of "Hermetico."
The latter song is one of the band's best unions of its Eastern and Western sounds, powered by some funky saxophones, but also containing a defiantly traditional melody that unfolds with rowdy charm.
There's nothing trendy about the ancient-sounding vocal refrain at the heart of "Joro Boro," a song built around an a cappella duet emailed to the band by Dessislava Stefanova of the London Bulgarian Choir. The tune is stirred into the mix with frisky percussion and occasional electronic touches.
The old-fashioned instruments consistently resist blending with the band's contemporary influences, which makes the sound distinctive. The accordion and trombone in the opening moments of "Quand Est-ce Qu'on Arrive?" are heavy and clunky, as is the legato horn interlude in the song's mid-section.
On other songs, the modern influences are more prominent, such as the dreamy strings on "Mexico City." BBB is too restless to stay moody for long, however, framing the initial approach by an insistent driving rhythm and a concluding solo that's closer to the blues. It seems incongruous, but it works.
Also on the modern side, there's a rapped interlude at the center of "Digital Monkey" as well as a beat-driven combination of horns, processed bass and guitars on "Balcasio."
There's some crowd noise dubbed into that one, too, about halfway into the album.
By that time, however, Nu-Med's intoxicating world music is inspired enough to captivate without such gimmicks. 05/18/07 >> go there
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