Balkan Beat Box | |
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Background information | |
Origin | New York City, United States; Tel Aviv, Israel |
Genres | Gypsy punk, electronica, funk, reggae, world music |
Years active | 2003–present |
Labels | Crammed Discs, Nat Geo Music, JDub Records |
Members | Ori Kaplan Tamir Muskat Tomer Yosef |
Website | www |
Balkan Beat Box (BBB) is an Israeli musical group. Founded by Tamir Muskat and Ori Kaplan in 2003, BBB was later joined by Tomer Yosef who became a core member. The group plays Mediterranean-influenced music that incorporates Jewish, Southeastern Europe (mainly Balkan) and Middle Eastern traditions, Gypsy punk, reggae and electronica. As a musical unit they often collaborate with a host of other musicians both in the studio as well as live.
Co-founders Ori Kaplan and Firewater's member Tamir Muskat both met in Brooklyn, New York, NY as teenagers. Both had grown up with music; Kaplan had been a klezmer clarinetist, while Muskat was a drummer in a punk rock band.[ citation needed ] They established their own unique sound by fusing the musical styles of Mediterranean and Balkan traditions (mainly helped by Teo and the Chalga masters at the time) with hip hop and dancehall beats. [1]
Balkan Beat Box’s goal was to take ancient and traditional musical traditions and fuse those with hip hop in order to create a new mix of musical styles out of the traditional world music context that would appeal to listeners in a club or a dancehall. [2] As children, they had felt that traditional music was outdated and felt as though it did not adequately reflect their experiences of the growing world culture, so hoped to bring new relevance to these old traditional musical forms. [3] They cite Boban Marković, Rachid Taha, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Manu Chao, and Charlie Parker amongst their musical influences.[ citation needed ] The group was also influenced by Jamaican dub. In December 2006, the acclaimed artist from Tel Aviv Tomer Yosef became frontman for the group.
Balkan Beat Box’s self-titled first album (released in 2005) and their 2007 follow-up album Nu Med both received global acclaim.[ citation needed ] While their first album focused more on Mediterranean sounds, their second album included Arabic and Spanish influences. The song "Bulgarian Chicks" from their first album became popular in clubs and dancehalls in 2008.
The group released Blue Eyed Black Boy in 2010 and Give in 2012. Regarded as the "godfathers of global bass" by MTV Iggy, [4] the band continued to expand their sound incorporating electronic dance music, reggae, cumbia, and brass bands into their tracks. Blue Eyed Black Boy was recorded in Romania with the Jovica Ajderevic Orkestar brass band, and at Vibromonk East in Tel Aviv. Key tracks are "Dancing with the Moon", "Move It", "Blue Eyed Black Boy", and "War Again" as harbinger of things to come. The album Give was influenced by the Arab Spring, Occupy movements, and the spirit of change around the world. Spin Magazine dubbed the band "a global peace-keeping mission you can dance to". [ citation needed ]
The band's popular song "Bulgarian Chicks" was sampled by Mac Miller in the Diplo-produced track "Goosebumpz" in Spring 2013. [5] Later "Bulgarian Chicks" was also sampled in "Sis: Trompeta". [6]
The album Nu Med , already famous internationally became more popular when in August 2013 the song "Hermetico" taken from the album was sampled by Jason Derulo in his international hit "Talk Dirty" featuring 2 Chainz. [7]
In 2014, the Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis sampled the song "Adir Adirim" from Balkan Beat Box's eponymous album for the track "Mr. Toot". This track debuted as part of the fourth season of their show I kveld med YLVIS .
Their song featured in EA Sports' FIFA game series twice such as "Ramallah-Tel Aviv" featuring Tomer Yosef and Saz from album Nu Made (Remixes) in FIFA 10 and "I Trusted You" from album Shout it Out in FIFA 17 .
"9/4 the Ladies" was featured in the 2008 film You Don't Mess with the Zohan .
"Hermetico" and "Balcasio" were featured in a 2009 episode of the TV series Bored to Death .
"Marcha de la Vida" was featured in Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2011
They contributed an original song with production duo Stargate for the 2015 film Home, entitled "Slushious".
The David Sisko remix of "Headhunter" was featured in the 2016 film Kindergarten Cop 2 .
They co-produced and co-wrote a song for The Lonely Island featured on the Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping soundtrack, entitled "2 Banditos".
"War again" was featured as closing music during broadcasts of the korean e-sports league GSL. [8]
Firewater is an American band founded by American singer/instrumentalist Tod A. in New York City in 1995, after the breakup of his previous group Cop Shoot Cop. A self-described "world punk" band, Firewater incorporate diverse elements of world music with punk rock rhythms, including cabaret, ska, jazz, folk and most notably Eastern European influences such as klezmer and gypsy music, which has led to their inclusion in the gypsy punk genre.
Gogol Bordello is an American punk rock band from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, formed in 1999 by musicians from all over the world and known for theatrical stage shows and persistent touring. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Romani music mixed with punk and dub, incorporating accordion and violin.
JDub Records was a non-profit record and event production company that produced Jewish music and cross cultural musical dialogue. JDub, unlike most record labels, derived half its annual income from foundations and individual donors and the other half from record and ticket sales. As a non-profit Jewish organization its stated mission was to "forge vibrant connections to Judaism through music, media and cultural events." JDub operations included an artists' fellowship program, overseeing the Jewcy website, event production and consulting.
Ori Kaplan is an Israeli jazz saxophonist and a music producer. He moved to the United States in 1991. He has worked with many artists including Shotnez Tom Abbs, Firewater, Gogol Bordello, and Balkan Beat Box. He is also known as DJ Shotnez.
Tamir Muskat is an Israeli musician/producer-sound engineer who was born and raised in Petach Tikva, Israel as son of a Romanian immigrant. His father was the manager of Anzeagi Conservatorion for music in Petach Tikva. As a teenager, he was already a prominent rock drummer and percussionist. Early on, Tamir started producing Israel's first thrash metal records in his basement studio but also began working with Sephardic Eastern singers of Greek and Turkish origin in a highly ornamented style that is Middle Eastern in nature.
Nu Med is an album by the Israeli electronica-world fusion trio Balkan Beat Box.
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Blue Eyed Black Boy is the third studio album by the Israeli electronica-world fusion trio Balkan Beat Box.
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"Talk Dirty" is a song by American singer Jason Derulo, released as the second single from his third studio album, Tattoos (2013), in Europe and Australia. Derulo's third studio album was retitled Talk Dirty for its US release, featuring an alternative track listing. It was released as the third single in the US on January 7, 2014. The song features the American rapper 2 Chainz, making it Derulo's first single to feature a guest performer, excluding the French version of "Whatcha Say". The artists co-wrote the song with Jason Evigan, Sean Douglas, Ori Kaplan, Tamir Muskat, Tomer Yosef, and Ricky Reed; the latter is also the song's producer. The song is built around sampled instrumentals from "Hermetico" by the Israeli band Balkan Beat Box from their 2007 studio album Nu Med.
Tomer Yosef is an Israeli singer and lead vocalist for the Israeli-American electronica-world fusion band Balkan Beat Box. The band founded by Tamir Muskat, Ori Kaplan included Tomer Yosef as a core member of the formation and its lead singer.
"Hermetico" is a song by the Israeli-American electronica-world fusion band Balkan Beat Box. Written by band members Tamir Muskat, Ori Kaplan and Tomer Yosef, it was included in the band's second album Nu Med released in 2007, soon becoming a signature tune of the band.
Give is the fourth studio album by the Israeli electronica-world fusion trio Balkan Beat Box.
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