16 classic Balkan Gypsy tracks re-invented by Animal Collective, Nouvelle Vague, Cibelle, Oi-Va-Voi, Balkan Beat Box, Tunng, Shantel, Smadj, 43 Skidoo feat. Susheela Raman...Excursions around Balkan Gypsy music

Gypsy musicians have always absorbed and transformed the many different styles of music that they encountered during their journeys. But what might happen if young western European or American musicians did the same thing to Balkan Gypsy music? If they absorbed some of its spirit and infused it into their own sonic world? Well, the answer lies in the album you're currently looking at.

Electric Gypsyland is a collection of reinterpretations/ re-inventions of tracks from three of the leading Balkan Gypsy bands (Crammed's mighty Taraf de Haïdouks, Koçani Orkestar and Mahala Raï Banda), made by notorious fusionists (Balkan Beat Box, Oi Va Voi, Smadj, Shantel), by several mainstays of the new Balkan club scene (DJ ClicK, Forty Thieves Orkestar, Gaetano Fabri, Russ Jones, Russendisko), and by more unexpected contributors coming from totally different musical areas (Tunng, Animal Collective, Nouvelle Vague, Cibelle, 43 Skidoo feat. Susheela Raman, Buscemi and Shrine Synchro System). Also featured are many additional guests (from Europe, Turkey, Africa), engaging in virtual jamming with the original players. While some of these pieces stay close enough to the originals and can be described as remixes, most are poetic re-inventions, works of pure imagination… Also enclosed is a bonus CD including 12 of the best, original tracks by Taraf de Haïdouks, Koçani Orkestar, Mahala Raï Banda & Zelwer...


The Re-creators

Electrofolk heroes Tunng use their trademark guitars-and-glitches to take the Taraf de Haïdouks for a lovely walk through the green pastures of Albion.

Belgian DJ/producer Buscemi is known for his dancefloor-oriented take on Brazilian music, but this is his first trip into Balkan territory.

Cult US band Animal Collective have used a quasi-shamanistic approach in their recreation of a Koçani Orkestar tune.

In contrast to the characteristic frenzy of their live show, New York's Balkan Beat Box have adopted a controlled yet dynamic attitude in their Mahala Raï Banda mix.

Parisian Balkan club scene mainstay DJ ClicK goes dub on Romano Dance.

Franco-Tunisian musician Smadj (a member of DuOud) has incorporated here great new performances by himself (on the oud) and by Savas Zurnaci (clarinet) and Nuri Lekesizgôz (kanun), specially recorded in Istanbul.

One of the very first DJs to have brought the Balkans to clubland with his legendary Bucovina Club nights, Shantel was also part of the Electric Gypsyland tour (in the wake of the series' 1st volume), which brought him and members of Taraf & Mahala to clubs across Europe.

Oi Va Voi's own blend of klezmer-breakbeat-Balkan-jazz-etc was showcased in their successful debut album. Their take on the Taraf's A Rom and A Home must be one of the rare remixes produced under their collective name.

Highly-regarded, imaginative London-based Brazilian artist Cibelle delivers here her very first ever remix, in which she spices up the Koçani's brass riffs with guitars, noises, and pifanos-style flutes (reminiscent of those flute bands from the sertão?).

Led by Aidan Love, Forty Thieves Orkestar are a 6-piece London-based electro/Balkan band who do seem to know the meaning of the word "party"!

Known for their bossa-pop-like reading of classic '80s tunes, Paris' Nouvelle Vague have totally re-recorded Mahala's "Morceau d'Amour", which now features a duet between Mahala vocalist Sorin and NV's Marina Celeste.

The ShrineSynchroSystem contribution features Tony Allen's drums, Ba Cissoko's Sekou Kouyate on kora and Ben Mandelson's guitar engaging in a posthumous exchange with late, emblematic Taraf violinist Neacsu. The SSS is the 'band by other means' project lead by London muso/DJs Max Reinhardt and Rita Ray on an intermittent ongoing tour of several continents.

Ukrainian exiles Yuriy Gurzhy and his partner (renowned writer) Wladimir Kaminer are responsible for setting up Russendisko parties across Gemany. Yuriy also has his own rock band, called RotFront. He's turned an atmospheric tune by Zelwer into an ironical Russian folk singsong about the plight of perpetual immigrants.

Ever since his noted contribution to EGL1, Brussels producer Gaetano Fabri has been constantly deejaying in the hotspots of the Franco-Belgian Gypsy club circuit.

Anglo-Indian folk fusionist Susheela Raman has joined forces with 43 Skidoo (yes, a fleeting reincarnation of the similarly-named cult '80s band), i.e. her long-time partner Sam Mills and Fritz Catlin, to produce this epic excursion in which her passionate voice joins the Koçani brass.

Russ Jones has been a major force behind the London club scene for years, alone or as Future World Funk (with DJ Cliffy). He teamed up with producer Roc Hunter to produce this rework of a Mahala Rai Banda tune (an earlier version of which appeared on the Gyspy Beats compilation Russ put together with Basement Jaxx's Felix).