Gypsy Beats & Bangers

Compiled by Russ Jones (Future World Funk) and Felix Buxton (Basement Jaxx)

Gypsy music is making its way to the centre stage accumulating accoutrements on its travels - ranging from the James Bond Theme performed inna Gypsy Ska stylee to Cumbia cut–ups, dubwise diversions, Indian influences and exclusive Brixton Basement remixes courtesy of Felix B.

Gypsy Beats & Balkan Bangers (brought to you courtesy of Basement
Jaxx' own Atlantic Jaxx label) has cherry-picked the freshest fruit and contains a serious selection of blistering music and good times blended with both modern and traditional styles - all infused with gypsy spirit.

Gypsy Beats and Balkan Bangers gets straight down to business with Bucovina, the anthem of the Balkan dance scene, from Germany's DJ Shantel, who's done more than anyone to bring these sounds to our grateful ears and heaving dancefloors - with his last album going Top Forty in Germany. Whilst visiting his grandparents in Bucovina, now part of the Ukraine, Shantel was re-acquainted with his Gypsy heritage and decided to take the music back to Frankfurt - and the Bucovina Club was born. He's taken the night all over Europe and the result is always the same: scenes of drunkeness, anarchy and bedlam. Shantel also delivers a killer dub mix of Bucovina and a remix of Mahala Raï Banda's Mahalageasca.

Fanfare Ciocarlia cover the James Bond Theme; Senor Coconut provides a Cumbia remix of The Koçani Orchestar, sampling the classic La Colegiala from Colombia's Rodolpho Y Su Tipica; Gogol Bordello's love of The Clash extends to them using ex-Clash tour DJ, Scratchy, on their own riotous tours. Their unhinged Balkan punk stomper Start Wearing Purple was Radio 1 presenter Jo Whiley's record of the week, they sold out a recent show at London's Astoria and are being championed by the NME; N.O.H.A.'s Balkan Hot Step was used for a Nike ad and played out by Radio 1 DJ Gilles Peterson; and Russ Jones and Roc Hunter drop their Brass and Bass Mix of Mahala Raï Banda's Spoitoresa to bring the exclusive remix count up to 3 and taking Gypsy Beats and Balkan Bangers to a total of 15 cuts of joyous, raucous music from out there designed to put some Gypsy in your soul.

GOGOL BORDELLO
Gogol Bordello, New York City's legendary Gypsy punk band, returns with the release of "GYPSY PUNKS: Underdog World Strike," their third album of Gypsy punk rock mayhem. Produced by Steve Albini (Nirvana, Jimmy Page/Robert Plant) in glorious analogue sound, "GYPSY PUNKS" is an expansive 15-track salvo that expands the band's fusion of Gypsy punk and Slavic stomp with a touch of metal and dub-wise sound effects that pay tribute to the classic sounds of Jamaica. Singer/lyricist visionary Eugene Hutz and the rest of the Gogol collective have attained a new level of musical and lyrical intensity in their continuing cultural crusade to build a bridge between Gypsy music, rock'n'roll and other brands of rebel music from Flamenco to the perestroika punk that blossomed in Eastern Europe during the mid-'80s.

"On 'GYPSY PUNKS' Gogol Bordello speaks proudly to the gypsy, punk, reggae crossover," says Hutz. "Gypsy's have a savage way of making music; they come from a culture where music is the only means of survival. Like reggae, it was created by poor people who have nothing but music; you can feel its universal rebel soul in every note."

The band's omnivorous appetite for rebel grooves is evident throughout the proceedings as is their linguistic versatility as they deliver their message in English, Spanish, Ukrainian and Italian. "Immigrant Punk" blends Gypsy stomp, punk reggae that tips its hat to The Clash, "Think locally, Fuck Globally," rides a wave of jazzy Django Gypsy swing and driving percussion with a balkan beat drum solo played by Hutz on an overturned fire bucket, while "Troubled Friends" blends metal guitar, a one drop reggae rhythm and some unexpected "gypsy dub" effects.

"The dub effects are also analog effects," Hutz explained. "We didn't want the connection with dub culture to be on a superficial level, so we used them on Gypsy beats as well as reggae beats, to pay respect to them and we play them live "GYPSY PUNKS" moves Gogol Bordello one step closer to their vision of an international cultural revolution, and while Hutz is clearly the focal point on stage he stresses the point that Gogol Bordello is a band. "It's easy to market my image as the image of the band, but I want to make a larger picture. Gogol is a collective, musically, spiritually and politically. We create an insane party atmosphere to deliver messages of social and political commentary."

Later this summer, Hutz will make his acting debut playing the Ukrainian character "Alex" in Everything Is Illuminated, based on the critically acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. Hutz secured the role after a chance meeting with director Liev Schreiber to discuss the film's music. It's a part that could have been written with Hutz in mind. "When I went in to speak with the director and producer about music, they both looked at me and asked me if I'd ever done any acting. Then they asked me could you do that guy Alex. I said, I don't have to do that guy, I am that guy." Everything Is Illuminated will be released in September 2005 and also stars Elijah Wood.

In 1996 Hutz landed in New York City and met the musicians who became Gogol Bordello. (Gogol Bordello refers to Ukrainian author Nikolai Gogol and the bordello with its connotations of erotic pleasure and
vulgarity.) The band's international underground reputation grew quickly due to their innovative blend of Eastern European Gypsy and Western culture and a stage show that resembles a three-ring circus of surreal stimuli. Gogol Bordello was quickly embraced by the art world and was often labeled an art band, but Hutz is clear about what Gogol Bordello is. "I want people to know we are not an art band, or a folkloric band, but a gypsy punk band from New York City playing our own original work that with all the culture clash we don't represent anybody but ourselves. It's our own vision of the socio-political-cultural situation of today."

MAHALA RAI BANDA
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 years old who have grown up playing music and having avoided the pitfalls of drugs and gangs, make a living by playing at Romanians' weddings. Living on the outskirts of a city they have been doused in modern culture which gives their otherwise traditional repertoire a pop twist.

The second, Gypsy as well but from Moldavia (near the Ukraine), have been in the army all their lives, enrolled at the age of 14, the only way their parents could guarantee them a decent education. Even though in Communist times technically everybody was a comrade, an equal, in reality things were quite different. A darker tone of skin due most likely to a Gypsy heritage was enough for a quick association to be made, sending these youngsters into the seemingly futureless musical ranks. There they learned to play a codified folklore of songs and dances with in-depth classes of musical theory. At the height of Ceaucescu's reign, there were 30,000 musicians in the Romanian army, playing at public functions and official governmental events. Now retired and on a small pension, they were discovered playing in a German restaurant in Bucharest. An army-trained brass band versus young city-dwelling traditional Gypsy musicians definitely guarantees for a blend quite extraordinary!

KOCANI ORKESTAR
After their adventures alongside the Taraf de Haïdouks (on the acclaimed and awarded "Band Of Gypsies" album), the mighty Macedonian brass band continue to broaden their scope in this exciting album devoted to Gypsy wedding music.

With their new, expanded line-up, mighty Macedonian brass band Koçani Orkestar are wilder than ever, getting the entire audience up on their feet & dancing at every concert. Their music is still based on Gypsy tunes from various parts of the Balkans and on Turkish/Bulgarian rhythms, with a sprinkle of Latin flavour... but this album is particularly devoted to the repertoire played by Gypsy bands during wedding celebrations in Macedonia. This enables the Koçani Orkestar to transcend the strict boundaries of the brass band genre : half of the tracks showcase the vocal talents of their two new singers (charismatic, young Aljur Azizov and accordionist Zlate Nikolov), and there are several small ensemble pieces featuring instruments such as darbuka, banjo and clarinet. The band's popular trademark thundering style is present as ever, with its powerful rhythm section (drummer + four tubas) which rocks like a mutant Balkan funk band, and its wailing, passionate soloists (Ismail Saliev on sax, Turan Gaberov on trumpet and Deladin Demirov on clarinet).

To listen to some of the track from the comliation go to www.myspace.com/russjones1