The Bluffer’s Guide to Modern Balkan Music

The new Zdob Si Zdub album, Ethnomecanica, is superb. Most of it revisits old material and adds a more prominent Tzigane feel to it. Much as i love Gogol Bordello, it puts most of the stuff they're doing into the shade. They really are one of Europe's most under-valued rock acts, despite their amazing sixth-placed finish at Eurovision a few years ago.

Balkan music? There's more to Balkan music than your average gypsy brass orchestra. Here are some classics from Croatia & Bosnia Darko Rundek - Apokalipso http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGdAPibZOo Let 3(they're known for their hilaroius "costumes", styling and outrageous live shows) - Tazi, Tazi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FInX-oGOFlE -also check out their Profesor Jakov, a pop-rock masterpiece with a killer chorus (not to mention the bridge) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGiGqoAv1kg Then you have Edo Maajka from Bosnia, the most popular hip-hop artist Prži - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERu0iazeg1k No Sikiriki - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYxJSAn4SrM Prikaze - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-FYeb974EA Svadbas scored a huge hit couple of years ago with Treblebass - http://web.vip.hr/bcajic.vip/Blog/Svadbas_TrebleBass.htm The Beat Fleet (or TBF) are the most popular Croatian hip-hop group Genije - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtR0E-vGhuo Nostalgi?na - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sT-5BA2fIc (if P. Diddy samples this somebody should shove a bomb up his ass). If you like some of this artists be free to explore more.

^^^ nobody cares about Balkan music in its entirety, it's just that gypsy music has become the hottest shit among urbanite hipsters who see the Balkans as somewhere between Borat and a Kusturica film. This fad too will pass, just like Tropicalia a few years ago and Afropop in the 1980s.

"indie rockers like Beirut have embraced..." it should be "indie rockers, Beirut, have embraced..." if you can`t give more than one example, then don`t use the plural

kerguelen: Don't blame popular culture for itself. Latin music existed well before Gloria Estefan and Ricky Martin made it U.S. marketable, and will exist long after its hip cachet runs out. Ditto Gypsy music. bassman: "...but only now are net hypes like Man Man and the Decemberists spinning indie gold from it."

Ever heard of the Balkanbeats compilations? DJ Robert Soko in Berlin was actually the first to start spinninng Balkan music in Berlin in the early ninetees. He was just to shy to market himself probably back then. Now we have two wild compilations and him spinning all over the world. Check out: http://eastblok.de/ebm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=10 You can also find them on CDBaby in the States.