Live In Belgrade by Boban Markovic Orkestar

14 May

Written by Mark Keresman
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These fellows are an 11-piece brass band (well, brass, saxophones and percussion, to be truthful) from the strife-torn Balkan land(s) that used to be known as Yugoslavia. Maybe it’s the climate, the (heavy) food or a combination of the two, but that region has a tradition of folk-rooted brass music that sounds like no other in the world. It’s loud, rhythmic, uproarious, in-your-face party music - imagine a highly-caffeinated edition of Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy vacationing in the thin-air mountains of Peru with a Mexican mariachi band playing Gypsy/Rom folk tunes. Dig: swirling modal melodies churn (no other word will do just now) that echo the Balkans, Greece and early 60s Coltrane dance with each other over a pulsating rhythm matrix, with brass(y) harmonies that sound slightly out-of-sync with each other - delightfully disorienting, scintillatingly surreal, like an aural mirage of something strange and beautiful. You think there’s nothing "new" and/or unusual to listen to "out there"? Guess again, then pick this ‘un up and guess no more.