Gypsy Music

Buick6

too punk to drunk
Klemer, John Zorn? Or gypsy-step-house remixes of the Gypsy-Kings?

Really they should be doing Fela Kuti-core!
 

Woebot

Well-known member
Buick6 said:
Klemer, John Zorn? Or gypsy-step-house remixes of the Gypsy-Kings?

Really they should be doing Fela Kuti-core!

Nah this is a striktly brand Nu Urban phenomenon ting. ;)
 

luka

Well-known member
whose frame?
me and my sister got in to boban markovic a while ago, i doubt you mean our frame though
 

redcrescent

Well-known member
My guess is it might have started with Emir Kusturica film scores in the 90s, one or two of which (memory gap) feature his No Smoking orchestra.

Some "celebrity" orchestras I can name offhand: Fanfare Ciocarlia, Sufi mentioned the Boban Markovic Orkestar, Goran Bregovic also, they've done a bunch of club/festival tours as far as I'm aware of. Caught FC once and they were great. Played wedding tunes mostly, what a change from ABBA and Village People and other standard wedding disco fodder...

Some downtempo folk are in on the gypsy thing. Two or three years ago I heard Peter Kruder drop a mad swirling tune mid-set on several occasions, that cleared out some earholes (or woke some snoozers). Shantel brought out two albums called Bucovina Club 1 + 2 where he has some original gypsy music alongside his rather less interesting reworks a while back.

On a tangent, I suppose the whole Russendisko stuff from a few years back, big bouncy Russian tunes that start like a reeling drunk walks and end with mad pogoing in the mosh pit, could also be included here. Ditto klezmer.

There is an absolutely fantastic kind of mad, mad brass band music called banda here in the north and west of Mexico, I tell you there is nothing like a banda orchestra in full swing, when the brass kicks in it is hair-raising*. Banda Sinaloense del Este are my top boys but any self-respecting municipality has at least a few of these bands.
All that banda stuff and, in more general terms, norteño (northern) music in Mexico is basically a take on Central/Eastern European polkas, mazurkas, waltzes, redovas, etc etc also the English quadrille and Scottish dances; all of this was played at weddings and other social events in the 1800s and evolved into the form that's known today.
Now you even have corridas which sing the praises of coyotes/polleros (people smugglers) and drug lords and these match any gangsta rap or badbwoy tune you care to mention for gun talk and graphic accounts of brutality.

* Like the Afrika 70, Don Ellis Orchestra, Mike Westbrook stuff, Kenton, Charles Tolliver and Music Inc., of course the Skatalites. OK so there are some things like it. But more brass is needed!
And of course there is a lot of non brass gypsy music too, e.g. flamenco. Hearing Tomatito play por bulerías is one of the most exhilarating sounds I know.
 

Manuel

Member
Redcrescent, I'm from Monterrey as well! Small world.

OTM regarding banda music...I was blown away when I saw Banda El Recodo (one of the bigger, most well-known bandas around) live, the sheer loudness and energy of it was incredible and the band was TIGHT. Add a cowboy-boot-wearing, boozed-and-coked up audience (as when I saw them), and you've got a rather electric vibe going.
 

redcrescent

Well-known member
Manuel said:
Redcrescent, I'm from Monterrey as well! Small world.

OTM regarding banda music...I was blown away when I saw Banda El Recodo (one of the bigger, most well-known bandas around) live, the sheer loudness and energy of it was incredible and the band was TIGHT. Add a cowboy-boot-wearing, boozed-and-coked up audience (as when I saw them), and you've got a rather electric vibe going.
¡Un regio, qué bueno! I quite like it here but the visa expiry date is coming on too fast for my taste, so I'll come back soon, hopefully with an FM3 this time!
D'you by any chance know of any good music stores in Mty? I know Greenlight Records in the barrio antiguo and Music Lab on Río Tamazunchale in el Valle, but precious little else. Any info is greatly appreciated.
Smiling at your description of a banda audience. So true. These norteños are truly something else. I loved my first visit to a shoe store here: 50% shoes 50% rancher's boots in the most amazing variety.
 

ripley

Well-known member
There's also the soundtrack to Latcho Drom, which some folks I know (and myself) listen to obsessively.

And there's Gogol Bordello, quite popular these days (with frontman Eugene Hutz making it into hollywood as well).

and more generally brass bands are rocking the indie/whatever scene in NY and San Francisco - the Hungry March Band and the Extra Action March Band (the latter also toured europe and eastern europe last summer). I notice several songs from Kusturica films in their repertoire.
 

mms

sometimes
ripley said:
There's also the soundtrack to Latcho Drom, which some folks I know (and myself) listen to obsessively.

And there's Gogol Bordello, quite popular these days (with frontman Eugene Hutz making it into hollywood as well).

and more generally brass bands are rocking the indie/whatever scene in NY and San Francisco - the Hungry March Band and the Extra Action March Band (the latter also toured europe and eastern europe last summer). I notice several songs from Kusturica films in their repertoire.

extra action marching band ace - their cover versions of theme from enter the dragon etc - their live show looks great fun too . hopefully they'll make it to the shores of good old blightly soon, they seem kinda burlsque and twisted lots of tatoos and saucy gear http://www.extra-action.com/

these are mariachi style bands on the whole though aren't they?Same sort of people in yr average free folk band - similar sort of looseness etc .

thomas brinkmann has tidied up Django Reinardt's Charleston on his new album' lucky hands' - sort of 4/4ed it and it sounds quite strange - new uncommon angles and fluctuating noises come out of squaring it, making it sound more unkept than it ever did .

so matt why do you thing gypsy music is creeping in - i don't really see much of it doing so?
 
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ripley

Well-known member
mms said:
these are mariachi style bands on the whole though aren't they?Same sort of people in yr average free folk band - similar sort of looseness etc .

Not much more mariachi than they are gypsy, I guess. Or maybe I don't know what you mean by Mariachi? I think of the cats around the Mission in SF, groups of 3 or 4, guitars and maybe 1 horn, mostly very vocal oriented serenades.

While the marching band = lots of people including flag-carrying major/ettes and many instruments, no music with words, lots of shouting and cheering. Extra Action includes lascivious writhing and acrobatics/climbing as well. good stuff!

off topic I guess.,

What about the only house tune I own and play: "Balkan Hotstep" by N.O.H.A. ? that's from a few years ago but sports a sort of gypsy influence.
 
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