Shaped in the Gypsy ghettos (Mahala) around Bucharest, Mahala Rai Banda (literally Noble Band from the Ghetto), combines a surprising array of trends and styles. However, once you delve down into the history of the place, surprise gives way to fascination as all the pieces slowly fit together.

The Mahala gravitates around two poles, a family core close to that of Taraf de Haidouks, and retired soldiers originally from Moldavia.

The first are the sons of the generation that left the little village of Clejan to settle down in the ghettos on the outskirts of Bucharest, grandsons of the late Neacsu. The are between 20 and 25 ...