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Sample Track 1:
"Šiško’s Blues" from Teknochek Collision
Sample Track 2:
"¡Ruchenitsa!" from Teknochek Collision
Buy Recording:
Teknochek Collision
Layer 2
CD Review

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CMJ NEW MUSIC REPORT, CD Review >>

This Brooklyn nine-piece, with its roots in the downtown Manhattan jazz scene, takes on Balkan brass stylings with a heavy beat, but a light heart. The tunes here (half originals, half covers) are chock full of sweet, up-tempo rhythmic knots, which charmingly threaten to unravel at any moment. The album's beginning exhibits the Eastern European penchant for thorny staccato, but as it progresses the sound fills out, both production-wise and in the expanse of influences, from hip-hop to punk. While Eva Salina Primack's dizzying melisma attempts to add a cultural and sonic context, the two tracks she's featured on fall flat. The best tunes here are found in the fusion: within the swanky nature of "Never Gonna Let You Go" and when SSP bring it back to the bayou on their version of the Allen Toussaintpenned "Occapella (Have A Beer)."  04/30/07
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