Artists
Artist Profile
Balkan Beat Box
- Contact
Booking: Seth Rappaport, The Agency Group
Management: Janis Shen
Label: Aaron Bisman, JDub Records
Publicity: Emily Goldsher, JDub Records
- Links
Artist Website: BalkanBeatBox.com
“Gypsy is the definition of a soul, not a color or place. It’s a take on life.” – Tamir Muskat in SPIN, Jan. 2007
Balkan Beat Box blends electronic music with hard-edged folk music from North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The group was formed in 2004 by Ori Kaplan, former member of Gogol Bordello, and Tamir Muskat, producer of J.U.F.'s "Gogol Bordello vs. Tamir Muskat" and drummer for Firewater and Big Lazy.
Balkan Beat Box is the natural reaction of passionate musicians that demand the erasure of political and geographical divisions in music. While breaking down these borders, the band has created a new, unique sound that brings people together on dance floors all over the globe. Balkan Beat Box has steeped their music in a lifetime's worth of research into their own non-Western roots. A quasi-circus event, BBB performers collaborate with artists from Bulgaria, Morocco, Spain, Israel, and Turkey, all of them drawing on a variety of styles from around the world. Every event keeps the audience guessing what the next surprise will be.
Having played live in so many drastically different locales, it is hard to keep them all straight. From Mexico City to Berlin, Osaka to Istanbul, BBB never fails to delight their excited fans. "What makes it a dance floor experience are the beats combined with soulful melodies that want to make you move," says Tamir. "That's a fatal combination for us." To date, BBB has played to massive crowds at Bonnaroo, Lotus Festival, Roskilde, and Central Park Summerstage. They have appeared on Al-Jazeera, NPR, WXPN, PRI's the World and in SPIN, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Balkan Beat Box's 2005 self-titled debut album, out on JDub Records, was hailed by The Denver Post as "a sonic masterpiece." Their exciting melange of international sonic rhythms and ideas ignited a huge following among global music fans. Their followup, Nu Med, has sold over 10,000 copies in the US. Having permanently added MC Tomer Yosef to the mix, Nu Med ultimately succeeded in delivering the indescribable energy of BBB's intense live show to the studio. The 2009 release of remix album Nu Made celebrates BBB's past two records while still preserving their dynamic ability to make the organic electric. As a companion to the remix record, JDub will be issuing all three BBB albums on vinyl for the very first time.
Though Balkan Beat Box is comprised of a constantly-rotating cast of musicians, the band currently features Ori Kaplan on saxophone, Tamir Muskat on percussion, Tomer Yosef on vocals, Jeremiah Lockwood on guitar, Itamar Ziegler on bass and Peter Hess on saxophone.
PRESS:
"4 Stars! A global peacekeeping mission you can dance to." - SPIN
"A dance party that is more than the sum of its parts...from world class percussion synthesist Tamir Muskat" - Time Out NY
"An Eastern Bloc party turned to 11 at 4:30 a.m. - only live and with musicians hailing from Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Bulgaria and Spain." - Denver Post
"Finesse without a touch of self-confidence: the instruments include laptops and kitchen utensils, ancient Saharan dialects share the stage with neologisms...featuring adventuresome instrumental melees." - The Forward
"Come prepared for a raucous night." - NY Post
Latest_news
Josh Kun Digs for Dawn
Author, musicologist and member of the esteemed Idlesohn Society for Musical Preservation Josh Kun has made a dope little mixtape in support of Dawn 2010, the Tablet Magazine sponsored, May 15th late night party in San Francisco, celebrating Shavuot.
Kun’s mix is a deep dig into the crates of vintage and archival recordings sitting right next to more modern dance tracks with a few more mind-blowing gems sprinkled in between, with all the tracks pulling from a different corner of the globe with a heavy pulse on that Jewish tip.
The mix includes tracks from the famed Barry Sisters, funked out Jewish soul music from Slim Gaillard, Musica de Latina, a ton of classic African tunes, some crazy Hava Negilah rendition and a bunch of JDub artists including Soulico, Balkan Beat Box and The Sway Machinery. The mix closes out with a banger from Mexican Institute of Sound, who happens to be homies with Kun’s beau.
All around worth a listen, head over to our friends at Tablet Magazine to listen to this exclusive mix.
92 year-old Irving Fields, who has a few tracks on this mix has been writing hit songs since the 1920’s. He recorded over 90 albums, including his biggest LP hit, Bagels and Bongos. JDub recording artist SoCalled suggested he write a song about Youtube, and he did. check it below
The Balkan Beat Box line dance
Found this tonight. Who knew summer camps were dancing to JDub tunes?!? One day, maybe I’ll tell you about my history as an Israeli line dancer. As you might imagine, it starts the summer after 5th grade…
It’s Time to Get War Again
Balkan Beat Box - War Again (RJD2 Remix)
The funky pop dude/break-beat maven/crate digging and ever evolving producer RJD2 lends his touch to Balkan Beat Box’s 1st single, War Again. Rumors are The Very Best and Brazilian Girls will also be weighing in with a remix effort, sso tay tuned for that!
War again is the lead single off their new record, Blue Eyed Black Boy. Recorded in Belgrade and Tel Aviv, Blue Eyed Black Boy takes BBB to their roots, scouring the Balkans and beyond for unique collaborations and new inspirations for their globalized urban mashups. Blue Eyed Black Boy is their first album of all new material since 2007.
The record isn’t out yet, but you know that JDub’s got the hook up for you. We’re running an exclusive pre-order right now at the JDub Webstore
Pre-Order Blue Eyed Black Boy and be entered to win a ton of FREE Balkan Beat Box stuff. Buy the record between now and 5/04/10 to be eligible and 3 winners will be chosen at random.
Go get that Blue Eyed Black Boy
Blue Eyed Black Boy Pre-Order
Balkan Beat Box -War Again
Balkan Beat Box are back with their newest album, Blue Eyed Black Boy (April 27th) and you know JDub has got the hook up for you. We are running an exclusive pre-order starting today at the JDub Webstore.
Pre-Order Blue Eyed Black Boy and be entered to win a ton of FREE Balkan Beat Box stuff. Buy the record between now and 4/27/10 to be eligible and 3 winners will be chosen at random.
Grand Prize - The entire Balkan Beat Box catalog on CD and Vinyl + Air BBB T-shirt
Runner Up - Balkan Beat Box’s Nu Med and Nu Made (Remixes) on CD + digital downloads
2nd Runner Up - Balkan Beat Box - Nu Made (Remixes) on CD + digital downloads
JDub Radio App!
Calling all you iPhone and iPod touch heads out there, the JDub Radio App is now available!! For the low price of $1.99, you can have instant and unlimited access to 100+ streaming tracks from the JDub Records archive directly on your iPhone. Features tracks from Balkan Beat Box, Michael Showalter, Golem, Soulico, DeLeon and all your other favorite JDub artists.
Download the app HERE
Video
-
BBB Live FRANCE TOUR JULY 2005
-
Hermetico Live
-
La Bush Resistance Animation
Photos
IM Icons
Web Banners
-
BBB 125
-
BBB 300 squ
-
-
-
-
-
Rooftop Roots Volume III
A JDub Mixtape - (v/a)
2007
Out Of Stock
-
-
Rooftop Roots - Vol II
A JDub Mixtape - (v/a)
2006
Out Of Stock
-
-
Rooftop Roots
A JDub Mixtape - (v/a)
2005
Out Of Stock
-
No events are scheduled for Balkan Beat Box.
Artist Music
Latest News
Pitchfork Reviews the Wailing Wall
The Wailing Wall received a great review today on Pitchfork from writer Joshua Klein. In the review Klein writes of “The Low Hanging Fruit” the new album from The Wailing Wall as:
“No Old Country kitsch fest. Rather, Rifkin goes deeper and broader, invoking the Bible as an anchor but opening up beyond the standard Judeo-Christian [...]
The Gangsta Rabbi Covers a Punk Classic
We’re working on a short documentary about the Gangsta Rabbi, but for now you’ll have to settle for this cover of the Buzzcocks’ “What Do I Get?”
More Gangsta Rabbi:
Buy DiKtatoR17
Download “Obama-Rama Yeah”