Balkan not Beats

I'm not sure how many of you've got Spotify, but if you do it might interest you to hear this playlist I put together of distinctly non-Balkan Beatsy Balkan music, from every interesting country except Albania/Kosovo whose Spotify presence is disturbingly non-existent. Lots of great material is not on Spotify of course, but I think I still managed to bring together a fair deal.

Balkan not Beats (Spotify playlist)

Blogging return planned soon, on a semi-regular basis.

A Small Balkan Pop Primer For The Uninitiated

What is it with the continual association of the Balkans with brass bands, klezmer and "gypsy" breakbeats? For the past 20 years, the Balkans have been the site of an almost Caribbean-like explosion of different styles in the wake of the fall of communism, and for those of you who're not really into this stuff I thought it'd be worth it to put together a very brief primer, a few sentences per genre and one or two Youtube vids. The social context is super-interesting too but I'll leave that for another time.

Generally, all the genres of Balkan pop exist in a continuum where they're more or less synth-driven, more or less associated with the Roma or other ethnic minorities and more or less take their musical cues from what happens in Istanbul. Other influences felt across the board are Arabic and Indian music, commercial pop, European dance music, hip-hop and, to a surprising extent, reggaeton.

Here's some of the major genres developed in the past 20 years, roughly in a sweep from the south-west to the north-east:

Turbo-Folk
The occasionally controversial pop music of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia used to have less Eastern influence than the rest (and still does in Slovenia to horrendous result) but now it's right there on Istanbul's heels as well, or sometimes up in space. Often, this stuff is touted as what should eventually heal the old enmities of the former Yugoslavia.

The brassiest thing you'll see on here today:



Tallava
Tallava is music from Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia, to varying degrees the music of the Roma, the Albanians themselves and of the Ashkali. It values weird synth equilibrism and has this drone-like quality which lends well to being mixed with dub and psychedelic sounds. At another end it's got a whole hip-hop remix culture set up, and can be some of the more funky music of the Balkans.

Endless, rambling tracks like this one are de rigeur, don't miss the invitation to "dansu reggu" near the end:



Oh, and in case you're missing the Dembow, it's alive and kicking in Macedonia:



Skyládiko
Greece has more continuity to its music scene than the former communist countries, and more connection to the west, so the Balkan pop scene here tends to be a tad ill-kempt (Skyládiko means "doghouse"). On the other hand it's close enough to the very commercial and very successful greek pop scene that it sometimes hard to tell the difference.

I mean, stuff like this is good but more Eurovision than dancefloor:



Chalga
I posted a whole mix-tape's worth of Bulgarian music a year ago, which I could re-upload if anyone wants it. In any case, Chalga, or Popfolk, is probably the most commercially successful and well-balanced music of the lot and very much mainstream music in Bulgaria. At its best it's totally at the level of quality commercial hip-hop, and well worth listening to.

It's also unusually house-club-remix friendly:



Kyuchek
As it's used today in Bulgaria, this is Chalga's low-production-value Turk-Bulgarian cousin. Cheezy synth and/or clarinets set to belly dance rhythms by various funnily-named Orkestars, this can be topical, silly or dancey and is certainly more fun than some of its straight-laced cousins.

I mean, look at the dude ass-dancing in this video:



Manele
Okay, this is my favourite genre in the area and it's going to be the topic of my master's thesis, so you'll hear lots more about this in the winter and spring. Nevertheless, Romania's contribution to the spectrum is the most compelling to me - it's super-diverse, it's got the most wide-reaching influence set, the most heart-felt vocals and just the right mix between rough-hewn and interesting. Some songs are achingly beautiful, some are about butts and feature a reggaeton rapper or something. How can you not love this stuff?

Here's both a dancehall toaster and diva tragedy in one package:



RnBesk
The only reason I'm including this is because it appears on Wikipedia's bare-bones Balkan Pop page. That and the great portmanteau name. It's Balkan in the sense that it's Turkish-influenced European music, but the origin of the genre is Germany, which I admit is a bit of a stretch. Still, it's fairly cool as a decidedly lo-fi example of how interesting diasporadic music can be.

Apparently this guy is a huge star:



Well, there you go. Diversity, depth and more involvement is just around the corner if you do some digging!

Bulgaria 2008: The mixtape

A largish dose of musical tourism compiled from the CDs I bought in Bulgaria, plus web sources. I don't know about you, but I think this contains some real gems.

As an emblem for the compilation, it would be hard not to pick Bulgaria's brightest shining star, Azis. Somehow, this flamboyant and widely beloved performer and roma/gay rights activist manages to embody that perfect balance between the serious and the hedonistic that makes pop music brilliant.

1. Andrea & Costi - Samo Moi
2. Azis - Na Golo
The pop music of Bulgaria, as much as any in the Balkans, is torn between the cultures of east and west. The most popular genre itself has a dual identity, representing the strife towards the two extremes: it can be rendered as Eurovision-friendly "popfolk" or dangerously Romani/Turkish "chalga". And yet, as these two tracks illustrate, it's also always somehow both. Samo Moi may seem thoroughly westernised, with bits of reggaeton, house, R&B, hip-hop and ragga representing a far-off America, yet it has been thoroughly assimilated into a deeply balkanic structure. Na Golo may have set its sights east from the opening gong onwards, but it is just as much a modern DJ-driven track. It's also, very thoroughly, infused with the ideals of another genre: kyuchek.

3. Ramzi - Ramzi Ku4ek
It's got many spellings and it means many things. Kyuchek, kjochek, čoček, ku4ek, or most accurately кючек is, on the one hand, the easternmost outcropping of the Balkan Brass phenomenon. In the hands of various gypsy orchestras, it's a thoroughly modern hi-tech genre. Yet somehow, it's also the "Turkish" genre of Bulgaria, representing belly dance and Turkish-Bulgarian identity. Taken together with it's considerably less polished presentation compared to popfolk, it displays an astonishing variation of style elements and sub-genres. At this popular extreme, for instance, it is completely percussive.

4. Ork. Darik - Bim Bam
5. Orlin Pamukov - Daralej
6. Koka - Kokain Kiuchek
Most kyuchetsi, though, are instrumental. Here are three I've particularly taken a liking to, maybe 'cause I like the very strangled synth sound they all have in common and the deejay-like shouts of the last track.

7. Ork. Kitka - Bin Laden Kjochek
8. Dumi - Dzhet Bank Kredit
Vocal kyuchetsi tend to have an almost calypso-like topicality. Here are two that deal with current issues or personal topics. I intentionally left out the "crazy frog" kyuchek.

9. DJ Matry - Action Ku4ek (remix)
10. Sevced - Chokolada
11. Erik - 100 na 100
Of course, being two such similarly modern genres means pop-folk and kyuchek frequently mix. You get straightforward kyuchek remixes like DJ Matry's above. And you get the borderline cases: Sevced is a kyuchek artist (of Roma-Turkish origin) who has the production values and "Roma raggaton hip-hop" outlook rivalling any chalga. And Erik is marketed using the full popfolk slick machine yet can just as often sound very kyuchek. Or in this case manele - this is a cover of a Ionut Cercel song.

12. Raina & BO - Gulemi Dumi
13. Preslava - Novata Ti
Two of the biggest hits and two of the biggest stars of popfolk at the moment. It's interesting to note that almost all of the stars of the genre are, with the exception of some gay guys, women.

14. Teodora - Seks
15. Expose - Sexy Baby
And here is a potential explanation why: sex is a major topic and selling point of much of the genre. On the one hand, it's tempting to include these scantily-clad soft-porn women into the global league of leering, but there's a strength and self-confidence to a lot of the stars that's difficult to ignore.

16. Elena - Pyrvata Poslednata (DJ Cobricio 2008 Remix)
Bulgaria, believe it or not, also has an extremely strong house DJ culture, and you get plenty of popfolk remixes like this one. (Which 128 kbps doesn't do justice at all, couldn't find it at higher bitrates.) Deep Zone Project, this year's eurovision entrants, are also regular chalga remixers.

17. Erik - Nezakonno (DJ Peter Summer Tribal Remix)
18. Sofi Marinova & Ustata - Tolkova Silno (DJ M-Joy Reggaeton Remix)
The affection in the Balkans for reggaeton and Caribbean music in general apparently still surprises people. Well, as this compilation should make explicitly clear, the affinity seemingly goes beyond even the rhythmic similarities to kyuchek track 18 emphasizes. Besides these two remixes there are traces of something Caribbean in tracks 1, 8, 9 and 10 at least.

19. Ustata - Pusto No Ludo I Mlado
Marking the mixtape's transition from popfolk to hip-hop is Ustata, with a foot in both camps. This track is doubly interesting because it penetrates into the deeply problematic area of national styles and authenticity. Bulgarian nationalists hate chalga, passionately, because it's "Unbulgarian" (read: Roma and Turkish). Yet here Ustata is using the full set up of the wholesome traditional Bulgarian folk style, including a gaida and a female choir. Is he reaching out, mocking, or just picking up good sounds and not giving a fuck?

20. Misho Shamara - Tanzi Mrasni
21. Gamena ft. One Way - Rojden Den
22. Upsurt - 3 v 1
23. Ulichna Bolka - Razklati Gi
Finally, a smaller selection of Bulgarian hip-hop, which is generally strong in an international way. Misho Shamara, the strong man of Varna hip-hop, raps regularly in English, makes tracks featuring US artists and does A Milli remixes. Gamena, part of his stable, here features a German rapper. Upsurt are borderline comedy hip-hop, here in "discussion" with a journalist. Finally, my favourites are probably Ulichna Bolka, out of Burgas, whose record I bought on a whim. I know they're trying real hard to be hard and not pop-folk but don't tell me I'm hallucinating when I nevertheless hear kyuchek-like sensibilities deep in this...



DOWNLOAD LINK 1

or

DOWNLOAD LINK 2

Blog break #3: Bulgaria

In a spiritual continuation of my Malta and Hungary trips this year, I'm going even futher east to spend a week celebrating my girlfriend's mother in law's birthday with her entire family, 16 people in all. The destination is the black sea coast of Bulgaria, a prime tourist destination for Swedes these days. But, what's more interesting for me, also a country with a fascinating culture of pop music. As usual, I hope to bring back CDs and pictures.

Bulgaria is a typical Balkan country in a lot of ways, but maybe more extreme than most in its split identities, living with both an Ottoman heritage and a status of being absolutely ur-slavic (Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of the russian-orthodox chuch, comes from here).
It struggles with both a desire of ancient purity (typified by the communist-nationalist regime of Todor Zhikov and the international success of Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares) and a constant radical "corruption" of that ideal... Chalga, the local east-seeking equivalent of Manele, has more to face than just pure gypsy-hating racism. This despite it being rather more safely "European" than its Romanian cousin.

Still, at its best it's still a wonderful genre. As is Bulgarian hip-hop, one of the best integrated in the region.

Chalga:





Hip-hop:





And the combination of the two:





I'm particularly in awe of Azis in that last video, easily one of my favourite performers in any genre. So expect a lot more results from this trip than the last two - If I get any time I'm going in deep in my attempt to be a good musical tourist.