Balkan Beat Box performs an inspired madness that crosses multi-cultural circus with non-stop dance party. Israeli bandmates Ori Kaplan (Gogol Bordello) and Tamir Muskat (Jewish Ukrainian Freundschaft) lead fellow expatriates Itamar Zieglar, Dana Leong and Vocalist Tomer Yosef through an infectious mish-mosh of hip hop, reggae and Slavic sounds, infused with Mediterraneam, Balkan, and Jewish influences. The band is part of the NYC musical underground that includes the bands Big Lazy, Pink Nose, Firewater, JUF, Gogl Bordello and Shotnez. Its full horn section, dj beats, percussion and video projections come together for a surreal atmosphre that’s part Gypsy caravan, part performance-art collective, Balkan Beat Box is a south European cross-cultural experience that has evolved into a non-stop dance party.

Bulgarian Chix

Golem’s raw material lies in Yiddish theater songbooks, shtetls and bandleader Annette Ezekiel’s field recordings from Lower East Side locales like bagel shops staffed by Turkmen Jews. She reconstructs these songs much the same as the 16th-century legend of the MAHARAL of Prague. who fashioned a golem monster out of clay.

Greine Kusine

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