They've been wowing festival and club audiences around the world non-stop for the last couple of years with their wild, powerful show, and now they are back with their strongest album so far. Balkan Beat Box – the three-headed, dancefloor-conquering powerhouse principally comprising Tamir Muskat, Ori Kaplan and Tomer Yosef – have been busy since the release of 2007’s devastating debut for Crammed Nu Med  (not forgetting the subsequent fine remix collection Nu-Made ) honing a sound that mixes musical gene pools more effectively than ever - a sound realised to glorious effect on  Blue Eyed Black Boy.

Recorded across a suitably diverse range of European locations – Ori’s adopted city of Vienna, Austria, the Serbian capital of Belgrade and the band’s mutual hometown Tel-Aviv in Israel were all bases covered on this album’s journey – Blue Eyed Black Boy finds BBB going that bit deeper, finding striking melodies, rock-solid song structure and an ever-sharper political awareness alongside their typically artful sonic collision of global musical styles and thundering danceloor beats.  

First full track Move It is a trademark BBB block-rocker, with duelling brass blowing a minor-scale middle eastern wind across chunky tabla-assisted rhythms as MC Tomer spouts lyrical, cheekily referencing the band’s past glories (‘the digital monkeys on a move’) as well as dropping the immortal lines of roots-reggae legend Max Romeo, with an individualist twist (' we can show u how to send u to outer space/to fly on your own…' ). Yet with the title track that follows we are shown a new, more measured side to BBB : the pace slows to a loping groove, guitars shimmer and Tomer delivers a thoughtful paean to struggles of the racial, social and political kind, seen through the ‘blue eyes’ of the ‘black boy’ in question. 

In general the mood throughout Blue Eyed Black Boy  remains buoyant and empowered, with Marcha de la Vida, Balcumbia and incendiary closer War Again destined to be new live anthems, and the contagiously poppy hip hop bump of Look Them Act coming off like some classic Timbaland production given a Mediterranean coast makeover. This unique trio of musicians have successfully nailed the communal spirit and energy of their live shows down to tape, and the result is the brightest, most confident and adventurous model of BBB to date: as loud, proud and politically-engaged a statement as you could hope for from this most 21st century of bands.

See a  trailer for the documentary film about the album,
and a fun short teaser in which they perform "Move It" on children's toys... and in a festival in front of thousands of ecstatic fans...