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Balkan Beat Box cruises the wafers between Old-World and new music.
- By Terra Sullivan
Growing up in a small town just outside of Tel Aviv, Israel, Tamir Muskat composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist of Brooklyn, -based musical project Balkan Beat Box knew two sides of his birthplace. "It was like growing up anywhere else in some ways. It was neighborhood with beautiful people and ugly people and nice weather and amazing food. But at the same time, in my life, I've been through five or so wars/* Muskat explains while on an extended stay back in Tel Aviv. "It changes you for good and bad. I'm sure
sometimes I feel like, what we're doing, we are much better ambassadors than the real ambassadors out there."
Muskat refers to the Balkan Beat Box sound as "Nu Med" and says it's a call for a new Mediterranean where politics, race and religion serve only as topics of shared discussions, not reasons for war. However, he says, this theory can be applied in any land.
This month, Balkan Beat Box will release its second CD, Nu Med. an offering steeped in Jewish, "Sometimes I feel like, what we're doing, we are much better than the real ambassadors out there."
You understand or then again, maybe you don't. The son of Romanian emigrants, Muskat uses his place in music as a means of bringing as many cultures into one song as there are smiling, robotic children in Disney's It's a Small World. With fellow producer and composer Ori Kapian, MC Tomer Yosef of Yemen and a loose collective of musicians from countries like Turkey, Morocco, Bulgaria and Spain, Muskat creates a sound that is at once an homage to the World music of his grandparents and an entirely new genre that flies in the face of world leaders who preach about borders imagined and real. "It's so easy these days for people to find a stupid reason to find barriers that keep you from ^connecting with other cultures, like language or political stance," Muskat says.
Greek and Balkan rhythms and influenced by American hip-hop and electronica. The album echoes Muskat's sentiments on songs like "Digital Monkey" in which Yosef spits, "I'm a digital monkey, I come from Middle East but don't belong to no country."
"In some way, by just the definition of what are doing and the huge amount of collaboration with people from countries who are basically in wars with each other, we began to see the extra political value of what re doing," Muskat explains. "Our crowd that is from around the world was just fascinated with the steps we took to have a Syrian singer or a Palestinian rapper or (as) Iranian violinist We slowly got cue of our innocent artistic bubble and realized what kind of an impact these
collaborations could have."
The bubble of which Muskat speaks formed more than a decade ago in New York City, when he arrived in what he calls in "the land of opportunity" to find an entire immigrant community in which everyone had accents but nobody asked, "Where are you from?" Through close friendships forged at a small Bulgarian bar, the little, percolating scene quickly caught on with music lovers and the press, eventually turning out such acts as the Gypsy-punk outfit Gogol Bordello, of which Kaplan was a member and Muskat served as producer. Gogol Bordello frontman Eugene Hiitz, who starred in the 2005 film Everything Is Illuminated, served as the wide-eyed, mustachioed ringleader. "Eugene would DJ at this little Bulgarian bar that was this great laboratory for this mix that didn't fit in anywhere," Muskat recalls.
"I think there is something happening lately; maybe
it's people looking for their roots. After all, everyone came from somewhere, but they forgot it."
This new style of world music includes acts like Sri Lankan hip-hop artist M.I.A., who merges reggaeton, dancehall and hip-hop, and American performer Matisyahu, who preaches Judaism against the backdrop of reggae. Even down the line, acts like Britney Spears snatching up Bollywood-themed beats is only an extension of the trend. As Muskat says, "It's out of your control; the mix is already happening." While in Tel Aviv, the self-professed night owl roams the open-24- hours city streets looking for new music, but not in traditional venues like music stores or nightclubs. "You don't really see it in clubs. You need to go to the Greek restaurant or the Turkish boutique to hear it," Muskat reports, "That's more of what interests me is to just walk in the streets."
So much of galkan Beat Box's sound comes from its Balkan horn section. Even a New York Times article compared listening to the brass to having "the history of the world handed back to you in a horn section."
Young Americans latching on to this historic music seems like development Muskat couldn't have predicted, though he is happy with the news. "I think it came out of the understanding of 'Wow, there are other things outside of the U.S. We should be interested in it,' " he says. "You can travel for days in the United States, and chances are you will hear the same language and see the same McDonald's, but think if s harder to be aware or even care about other cultures. But think there is something happening lately; maybe it's people looking for their roots more. After all, everyone came from somewhere, but they forgot it. It's pretty amazing to see how Americans are connecting to this music so naturally."
Muskat pauses before adding, "And slowly the family grows."
For this tour, the immediate family includes 10 members, but there's always room for more. "We just keep bringing people we meet along the way onto the next album. It may be eclectic, but this is our music and it feels like home." 05/01/07
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